Google Inc. has cut the amount of time it stores personal data from users' online usage habits, which is aimed to improve its privacy policies, according to a company official, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The leading online company used to store such data for 18 months, but now trimmed it to nine months.

Nicole Wong, Google's deputy general counsel, said that the company “planned to anonymise the computer addresses of its users more quickly,” according to Reuters.

"We're significantly shortening our previous 18-month retention policy to address regulatory concerns and to take another step to improve privacy for our users," Wong said in a blog post Monday.

Peter Cullen, chief privacy strategist for Microsoft Corp., said that Google's move was to response to pressure from European regulators and industry rivals, Reuters reported.

According to Cullen, until a year-and-a-half ago, Google had kept personal identity information about its users for an indefinite amount of time, and it adopted an 18-month privacy policy after pressure from the European Union.