Web Browsing Records

[Ian G Batten]

On Tue, 11 Mar 2003, Roland Perry wrote:
> But common sense says that to be useful at all, data must be kept for 
> something in excess of the time it takes to realise you need it, and do 
> the paperwork. Two days is a bare minimum (and as I've explained, the 
> four days is simply to accommodate weekends).

Sure, I agree.  But that's not the point being made in the document,
where all the examples are about investigations requiring data months or
years in retrospect.  This strikes me as a stalking horse, where the
requirement to keep four days (which is technically plausible) is used
to get a agreement that the principle of data retention is OK.

> So the only alternative is Zero days. Which I'm sure you could argue in 
> your consultation response.

I think that proxy/cache logs are an artefact of a particular
implementation choice.  If people know that the logs are available to
any policeman who cares to look, they won't want to use a cache.  Bad
people certainly won't use a cache.  The only purpose for these logs
will be trawling.

ian