Brussels, 28/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - The Article 29 data protection working party published a press release on Wednesday 26 May to denounce the lack of compliance on the part of the three main search engine operators - Google, Yahoo and Microsoft - with European data protection rules under Directive 95/46/EC. The G29, which brings together representatives of national European data protection authorities, sent letters to the companies concerned to bring them back into line. These letters, which were made public, were accompanied by two other letters addressed to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and to Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, respectively. In the letters to the search engine operators, the G20 calls for a greater effort to be made to bring their policies in line with European data protection legislation, urging them to use an outside auditor to verify their commitments to make users' internet search data truly anonymous. The letters follow the working party's call for the companies to cut to six months the period during which they store search data before it is made anonymous. For further information see: http: //ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/news/docs/pr_26_05_10_en.pdf. (B.C./transl.jl)