As a webmaster I can give you a general answer to the logged in question.
The site where you log in and out will collect session information about who
you are in addition to the IP address you log in from. That session
information may be transient or may be collected and retained depending
entirely upon the backend system used by the web site.
Website log files store pretty much everything about a user's visit. They
store where you entered the site, which pages you visited and for how long,
and where you left the site. They even store the interval between visits
(to an extent) to allow calculations of the uniqueness of your visit. A
description of some of this is found at
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/logs.html
Your ISP also holds logs of your activity. So it is perfectly possible to
determine precisely which machine (and login) searched for 'rose scented
talcum powder' on St Smellbetter's Day at 10am.
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nick Landau
Sent: 09 June 2006 11:28
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [data-protection] US Government and Data Retention.
There was the auite recent case which highlighted this where Google refused
to provide statistics of usage to the Homelands Defence Agency (or
similar) - not individual user details.
Subsequent to that I noticed that everytime I used Google my email address
at the top that I was logged in.
I realised that this was because I have registered with Google for their
Google newsgroup archive. It turned out that unless I logged off that it
continued with my log on every time I used Google.
Does anyone know whether my logging on or logging off as per my screen makes
any difference to what is collected by Google?
A short time afterwards I read that Google had done a deal with the Chinese
government. I somehow didn't think that Google would be so robust with the
Chinese Government than they were with the American administration.
Nick Landau
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Trent" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 10:54 AM
Subject: [data-protection] US Government and Data Retention.
>I picked this up from
> http://www.complianceandprivacy.com/blogs/Bruce-Schneier-index.html which
> carries an interesting small selection of blogs. It sent me to the LA
>
Times.http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-internet2jun02,0,622125.story?
> coll=la-home-headlines I suppose in the UK a "National Defence Exemption"
> might allow this.
>
> The questions in my mind are;
>
> Since an IP address is stored with (eg) google every time we search or
> even
> access the sit, is the IP address itself sufficient to be "Personal Data"
> Before you say "no, it's just a number" consider the many millions of
> gmail
> users who register their personal data with google, the yahoo users with
> yahoo, etc. Combining session information from an email session with the
> data and time of a search session could identify an individual with some
> precision.
>
> Am I just having Friday Paranoia, or could this be a legitimate threat to
> the privacy of individuals globally? And would it transgress the EC's
> directives? Does it have similarities to Air Passenger Data transfers in
> that they now should not happen after September 2006?
>
>
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-internet2jun02,0,622125.story?coll=
> la-home-headlines>
>
>
>
> Tim Trent - Consultant
> Direct: +44(0)1344 392644 Mobile:+44(0)7710 126618
> email: [log in to unmask]
> <blocked::mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Marketing Improvement Limited, Abbey House, Grenville Place, Bracknell,
> United Kingdom, RG12 1BP <blocked::http://www.marketingimprovement.com/>
> http://www.marketingimprovement.com
>
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