ISPs and Your Internet Security… Oops
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Comcast has announced its new surveillance policy. Their storage practices regarding customer information closely follows the letter of the law. Anything you do online can be tracked by your internet provider, as mandated by law enforcement officials.
The Comcast Cable Law Enforcement Handbook outlines all aspects of what information is collected, stored, how long it is stored, and under what circumstances that information is released. All of Comcast’s policies seem to follow the letter of the law, and seem to weigh customer privacy with law enforcement’s requests. This is in apparent contrast to AT&T and a number of other telecommunication companies, which have been only too happy to give over subscriber records. According to the handbook, Comcast keeps logs for up to 180 days on IP address allocation, and they do not keep all of your e-mails forever (45 days at most). VoIP phone records are stored for 2 years, and cable records can only be retrieved upon a court order.
Let me repeat, this is in contrast to AT&T and other companies’ policies regarding information sharing. Comcast has actually stepped up to the plate, and stated outright that they will not release this information without proper court procedure being followed. Several telecommunications companies don’t follow this, and tend to just hand over customer information willy-nilly.
If you don’t want them collecting and storing your information, be careful what you do online. Don’t do anything illegal, and you’ll be fine.
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