Back in the day Google started with the 18 months of data retention. Privacy advocates voiced their concerns over this issue when it first came up. Yahoo now has decided to only keep your web surfing data for 3 months. Possibly for 6 months depending on how security conscious they are feeling that day. Google keeps data for 9 months and Microsoft 6 months. There’s no ‘industry standard’ so each company is free to set whatever limits they deem fit. Will this affect how “related” those flash/java advertisements are? Hopefully I’ll stop getting those damn LavaLife and Match ads on the side bars when I’m surfing my favorite wholesome sites.