After receiving a U.S. Congressional letter seeking information about their data collecting and online advertising practices, the major search engines are taking steps to allay privacy concerns… and “self-regulate” before the Government does it for them.

By the end of August, Yahoo plans to offer an opt-out function for searchers targeted by customized advertising, while Google will, among other things, introduce ad capping to allow advertisers to limit the number of times a user sees a targeted ad.

Microsoft is said to be preparing its response.

Source: Nathania Johnson, “Yahoo and Google to Launch New Privacy and Ad Capping Features”, Search Engine Watch, August 11, 2008

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