Fed Bill Would Restrict Web Server Logs

Tue Feb 14 16:29:44 UTC 2006

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006, David Hubbard wrote:

>
> From: Andy Davidson
>>
>>
>> Speaking with my e-commerce vendor hat on, server logs (apache, mail,
>> application audit logs) and other information about visitors
>> (especially those who have conducted a purchase transaction with
>> us, or signed up to our newsletter) never stop having a business
>> purpose - it's called referential integrity.
>>
>> We want to use them to track the behaviour fraudulent users
>> for example.
>
> Anyone who runs mailing lists has to keep that info to be
> able to prove how and when someone opted in.
>

Have you ever tried getting opt-in information out of someone, especially 
when they know they've screwed up? You practically need a subpeona to do 
it. In many cases (I went through this recently with ZDnet) you literally 
have to play the escalation game just to rattle enough cages to get people 
to realize you're a: serious and b: not a kook. Oddly enough, I have the 
hardest time with the latter. ;)

It'll be interesting to see what this legislation looks like when/if it 
gets signed. Maybe it'll finally be the extra kick I need to get some of 
our larger databases purged.

- billn