Google Cookies Expire Sooner, If You Stop Visiting

Google has thrown another bone to critics of its privacy practices, announcing it would no longer set cookies to expire in the year 2038. Now, Google will set cookies to expire two years after a user last visits the site, with the expiration date auto-renewing to two years after each visit.

The search giant says the decision to make the cookies renew is so that users would not have to re-enter their basic preferences. Google does not require visitors to log in to store search preferences, using cookies to retain the data. The move follows a recent announcement that Google would anonymize its server search logs -- including IP addresses and cookie IDs -- after 18 months.