IP Technical question

[Caspar Bowden]

> admin@chiark.greenend.org.uk] On Behalf Of Richard Clayton
...
> Besides the RADIUS information that Clive referred to, which postdates
> my anecdote, it has been firmly suggested to me that the BT systems now
> keep their own logs of the mapping between IP address and an identifier
> for the physical piece of copper.  Whether this is correct, and whether
> LLU providers keep the same information on the equivalent systems, I
> could not say....
>
> This isn't entirely off our usual topics -- since if an ISP concluded
> that BT was holding the IP/line mapping data, then it would be excused
> from Data Retention requirements for that data (since it is held by
> another).  Equally, police officers who wished to obtain that
> information could approach BT rather than the ISP...

It also raises interesting Data Protection Act issues - for example would B=
T be considered a co-controller of personal data, and what would be their l=
egal basis for retaining? It so happens that I tried this out a few years a=
go (before the Data Retention Directive) with a test-case subject access re=
quest, resulting (after many months) in some pages of correspondence with t=
he ICO. I can't summarise the result easily.

Somebody might like to try again, and see what ICO's view is today...

--
Caspar Bowden