Fast Search and Transfer's AlltheWeb.com bowed to pressure from a consumer advocate this week by adding a first-ever privacy policy disclosing its data-sharing practices. . .

Fast Search and Transfer's AlltheWeb.com bowed to pressure from a consumer advocate this week by adding a first-ever privacy policy disclosing its data-sharing practices.

The Internet search provider, based in Oslo, Norway, responded to a complaint filed with the Norwegian government in late September by Public Information Research (PIR), a consumer advocacy group. The complaint charged AlltheWeb with failing to notify visitors that it uses tiny electronic tags to monitor search queries and share the data with third parties, in violation of Norwegian laws.

AlltheWeb posted a privacy policy, dated Tuesday, that outlines advertising partnerships with online portal Lycos and advertising company DoubleClick and describes their use of technology to track search queries.

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