According to Ars Technica, Google will be announcing today its intent for international privacy standards at the UNESCO conference in France. The amount of information that search engine companies can gather on individuals is vast and most individuals are unaware of the breadth of this information.

The most controversal topic seems to be the length of data retention. Most would naturally want companies such as Google to drop the data as soon as possible, but the government would like it to exist for as long as they say so. Google’s chief privacy officer Peter Fleischer stated the following, regarding international privacy standards:

“To be effective, privacy laws need to go global…But for those laws to be observed and effective, a realistic set of standards must emerge. It is absolutely imperative that these standards are aligned to today’s commercial realities and political needs, but they must also reflect technological realities.”

Other companies in search of the same set of standards include Yahoo, Ask.com and Microsoft.