On Wed, 3 Feb 1999, Bob Allisat wrote:
Jim Dixon writes:
... not only do European ISPs maintain Radius logs that tie dynamic IP addresses to user accounts but they are also strongly encouraged to do this by their national governments in most or all member states of the European Union.
EuroISPA, the European ISP trade association, checked with officials at DG XV, the relevant directorate of the European Commission, for their opinion regarding the statements quoted ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ above. So far their opinion appears to be that maintenance of such logs is OK so long as customers are aware that logs are being kept and the logs are not kept for too long.
Bob omits "the statements quoted above", confusing the meaning of what I wrote. What he clipped out were assertions to the effect that it is illegal in the European Union to keep records of user IP addresses, including dynamic IP addresses. These statements were supposedly made by EU "law enforcement officials".
Logging of an individual's activities on the Internet is one of those Big Brother kind of infringements ISPs love to advocate "on our behalf". The actual interests
As I tried to make clear, Europe's ISPs are not advocating logging; they are being urged or even required to do so by national governments. If the European Commission were to make maintenance of such logs illegal, this would put ISPs in an impossible situation. -- Jim Dixon VBCnet GB Ltd http://www.vbc.net tel +44 117 929 1316 fax +44 117 927 2015