how long does your ISP keep log records?

[sodusme]

Since the mention of ISP log records came up regarding the court letters DN/Nagra is sending out I'll post this article I came across citing the time frames for ISP log retention.

http://torrentfreak.com/how-long-does-your-isp-store-ip-address-logs-120629/

Currently there no mandatory laws on the books for how long an ISP has to keep user logs. The following is a list of a few different ISP's and their own time frames for log retention.

Time Warner Cable

Time Warner informed us that they store IP-address logs for up to 6 months.

Comcast

Comcast did not respond to our inquiries but has mentioned a 180 day retention policy for IP-addresses in BitTorrent-related court documents.

Verizon

Verizon’s Privacy Office informed TorrentFreak by email that information about IP address assignments is retained for 18 months, the longest of all ISPs who responded to our request.

Qwest/Century

The Qwest/CenturyLink Law Enforcement Support Group informed us that IP-address logs are kept for approximately 1 year.

Cox

Cox failed to reply to our inquiry, but previously it has mentioned a 6 month retention policy for IP-address assignments in the press. In Cox’s “Lawful Intercept Worksheet” the company also mentions that logs are kept for “up to 6 months.”

AT&T

AT&T’s IP-address logging practices are not public. Initially the company did not reply to out inquiry, but upon publishing AT&T’s Privacy Policy Team promised to get back to us as soon as they find out how long logs are kept. We will update this article as soon as their response arrives.

Charter

Charter lists no information about their IP-address retention in its privacy policy. However, a reader alerted us to an answer on Charter’s website where it states that residential IP-addresses are retained for one year.

The ISPs below were added after publication.

- DSL Extreme says they retain radius IP logs for two weeks on their DSL service.
- Teksavvy (Canada) keeps IP-assignment logs for 90 days.
- Eastlink (Canada) keeps IP-assignment logs for one year

[hotdog2]

The problem with this is that the NSA has been logging this same information for years and now that their Supercomputer is online in Utah to add to all their other super computers , they can store information for decades and still have plenty of memory .

Retaining it for years , is their intention , in case they ever want to refer to it later .

[Ineedanewusersname]

I don't see that as a problem, NSA vs local cable, as long as your not so-called crossing either one. They both have different agendas but I prefer a letter from my local cable than a visit from NSA.

Good info though, although I am not sure if anything goes away anymore.

[sodusme]

I haven't answered on the NSA comments here only because I'm not sure what to think about the NSA and what they are gathering and what they are not. There is lots of misinformation out there. Not that any of what is posted here necessarily falls into that category but I just can't find any cut and dry answers on what the NSA is doing. Most of what I read tells me they are targeting phone calls where one side of the communication is originating from outside the states. I can't really find any definitive answers on what internet usage they are targeting and gathering if any?

[sodusme]

I think what frustrates me the most is no one is commenting on exactly HOW they are gathering information. I know a lot about i.t. work and security and could probably put together a pretty good blocking technique if I knew HOW exactly they were gathering internet information or from where? I have read they are supposedly linked to Google "servers" and others servers. I say supposedly because again I can't verify that. One side says one thing, the other side says another.

I can tell you this though I don't care who they are or what they think they can gather if you follow some rules there will be limited "data" on Googles servers anyways (or anyone elses for that matter). One example would be to use a no log DNS.

http://wiki.opennicproject.org/Tier2

There are anonymous DNS on there that do not keep logs. Thus when you query a site or type it into your browser there is a server that has to convert or "resolve" that site name to an i.p. address. If that server resides on your ISP or Google servers they have that information of the site you typed in and the ultimate resolve of that site to an i.p. Use a DNS that wipes logs or keeps none at all. They do exist and you can find them listed on the above site.

I can also tell you if you use Firefox to use HTTPS Everywhere. Its an addon that forces a site to use an HTTPS session. That means that the information cannot be spied on as its a "secure" connection usually with 128 to 256 bit encryption. If you do online banking that information is already encrypted. You can force that encryption on any other site by using that addon.

Using both those should cut down drastically on any information stored on say Googles servers.