ZDNet UK 26/10/2001: "Home Office admits data retention plans"

[Caspar Bowden]

> Richard Clayton
...
> sadly, abuse issues arise many times a day :(

That actually require you to consult the RADIUS log ?
...
> it should not be needed for very long - since the vast=20
> majority of abuse reports arise within a month=20

R..ight. And many ISPs already have about three months of this, and the
govt. is talking about "voluntary" retention for a year...

...
> >I know of one very large ISP that keep
> >individual records of customer web browsing indefinitely.=20
> They do this=20
> >in case they one day figure out a way to datamine it - in=20
> other words=20
> >it is a resource held because of its speculative value.
>=20
> I expect that it is merely a sample of the data ((if you=20
> consider how much data is generated per minute, you will see why))

Assume 256 bytes per URL, 50 URLs per day for an average non-Nethead
user * 365 days ~ approx 5Mb per customer for a year

So an ISP with a million customers could store their entire browsing
activity for a year (without compression) on 200 DAT3 tapes. Doesn't
seem too outrageous.

--
Caspar =
Bowden=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=
=A0=A0=A0 www.fipr.org
Director, Foundation for Information Policy Research
Tel: +44(0)20 7354 2333=20