I heard that Google keeps your searches (by IP address) for six months or more, Microsoft a year and a half! So I got to thinking about emails. Text is trivially small to store and never delete. And with memory only becoming cheaper and more expansive, the downside for keeping information will continue to diminish.

I could imagine that intelligence agencies would love to be able to trace threads of communication back in time, for years. And of course, local law enforcement could use the information, if legal, too. Then there are all manner of civil cases; a divorce seeking information about online infidelity for example...

Anyone know for certain what companies are doing about this sort of online privacy?

If not, what is your guess as to what's being done?

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Originally Posted by Another

I heard that Google keeps your searches (by IP address) for six months or more, Microsoft a year and a half! So I got to thinking about emails. Text is trivially small to store and never delete. And with memory only becoming cheaper and more expansive, the downside for keeping information will continue to diminish.

I could imagine that intelligence agencies would love to be able to trace threads of communication back in time, for years. And of course, local law enforcement could use the information, if legal, too. Then there are all manner of civil cases; a divorce seeking information about online infidelity for example....

Anyone know for certain what companies are doing about this sort of online privacy?

If not, what is your guess as to what's being done?

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Computers and searches are subpoenaed all the time - sometimes they are available, sometimes they are not.

AOL is not terribly cooperative but apparently does keep records for a year - from what I have experienced. It may have changed since two years ago.

I know for a fact they do even on a small scale level. I fixed this one ladies PC and she used squirrel mail which is tons smaller than Yahoo, AOL, Google... etc and they kept theirs for 6 months so I would figure all the big wigs would too..

I correct mtself... Webmails do not keep emails (to my knowledgw) I said they did before because I retrieved some deleted email from squirrelmail but after a little digging squirrelmail is a Client that goes through Outlook! Therefore is required to keep files for X amount of months/years! Sorry for the confusion!

Rick

Yes, sometimes the information is available and sometimes it's not.

One time, a number of years ago, I asked the top level tech at my ISP what information was available concerning email that had already been downloaded to my computer. He said nothing was available other than possibly that which might have been sent while using only the server and not directly from my computer.

Thanks!

I would guess that if you are a high profile person in the governments estimation that they would keep close tabs on you for as long as they deemed necessary.
I think Big Brother is capable of anything.
Look at the *patriot act*... just a nice word for spying.
I know certain words and searches are considered key for on line surveillance.
It is creepy!