Lycos Germany to No Longer Store IP Data

quaker5567 writes "The Register is carrying the story that Lycos Germany says it will no longer store dynamic IP addresses of its customers. According to the German Tele Services Data Protection and Telecommunications Act, ISPs are only allowed to store communications data for accounting purposes. Apparently, there is no requirement for German ISPs to keep a record of IP addresses. A decision by German ISPs not to keep logs on IP addresses would be extremely controversial as the entertainment industry is increasingly demanding that ISPs disclose the names of suspected file sharers."

Comments

Re:Options

[rawb]

Morgan Stanley *IS* guilty because email now qualifies as memo's did in the past. All paperwork within a corporation must be kept for records and potential audits by the SEC.

There is no such rule regarding the internet and it's users' IP addresses... at least not yet.

How would it be controversial?

[rfc1394]

If you don't store information you can't be subpoenaed for it. And you can't compromise information you don't keep. People can't perform identity theft or harm your customers by stealing information from you if you don't keep the information in the first place. And the government can't turn you into an informant collecting information for them if you have no information to collect.

How is it controversial to treat customers with respect by not recording information not absolutely necessary to provide service to them? When I go into Office Depot, I can buy supplies, pay cash and leave. They don't ask me my address, my religion or my political opinions; all they care about is that my money is the right color, as it should be. Other business should consider doing the same thing: If you don't need the information in order to provide the product or service, don't ask for it. If you don't need to retain the information once the product or service is provided, don't keep it.

I have run my businesses that way for years; it saves a lot of paperwork hassles. Too many businesses see additional information collected from customers as a business asset they can sell. Which turns it into more data that can be prostituted into use for other purposes, not all of them good. Correction, most of them definitely bad.