How long are browsing histories kept on ISP servers?

Question

hi there,

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how long ISPs keep their customers' browsing histories on their servers? My sister is about to commence work at westnet and I am worried that if she looked up our household's browsing habits she may find something err.. inappropriate and that would be awkward. Thanks.

Answer 1

They should have rules in place making it hard for her to just look at anyone's history she wants to. Especially if her job doesn't have anything to do with browsing history. Aside from that though, they probably keep it for quite some time. I wouldn't rely on it going away if it does become a problem.

Answer 2

All they keep record of is how long you spend online, not where you browsed

Answer 3

Individual ISP's have their own policies .. I believe most discard history as soon as your 'session' is closed, however others may retain it longer (eg. for 'marketing' = see 'PHORM' - this has already been used (as a 'trial') on some thousands of BT Internet customers without informing them)

The UK Government is attempting to enforce a minimum 14 days 'history' on all ISP's .. however most ISP are refusing (due to the massive storage requirements that would impose ..)

Many web sites are known (or rumoured) to retain history on visitors for years (Google, for example, retains your search history for 18 months - see link)