Delete This!

Delete This!
Mark Rasch, 2007-08-07

A series of legal events means that companies that have no business reason to retain documents or records may be compelled to create and retain such records just so they can become available for discovery.

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Delete This! 2007-08-08
Anonymous

This is akin to requiring me to write down every single word I hear in case I hear something juicy.

The worst part is that a computer cannot say "I don not recall".

asOs......

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Delete This! 2007-08-08
WRM

I know this is being completely snarky but if the data being subpoenaed existed only in RAM and was never stored on non-volatile media (hard disk) then submit the RAM with the answer.
[That?s why I?m not a lawyer - just a random smart-ass] ;)

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Delete This! 2007-08-09
Anonymous

Question: what if I used web server software that had no logging capability? ...

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Delete This! 2007-08-09
Anonymous

Good column. Thanks for the good writing....

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Delete This! 2007-08-12
Firewallbill

I'm surprised & disappointed in this case.
The word "store" to me implies a certain level of permanence - you can "store" paper, plastic, magnetic media - "storing" something as ephemeral as RAM memory that goes away when the power goes away seems ludicrous. It sounds like this court is engaging i...

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Individual data retention 2007-08-13
Anonymous

How long until the individual is required to retain: recordings of everything we've ever heard or spoke; photocopies of all documents we create, receive, or read; GPS data of all places we've ever been. If such data exists it's discoverable. It's technically possible to create. It may become leg...

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Delete This! 2007-08-17
Galvo

The government should not be able to require that businesses keep records which would not ordinarily be kept. This is equivalent to having government require business to spy on the public for government purposes. (Which is no reason, except that it can, not why it should). Looks like the government ...

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Remove ability to log (using open source) 2007-08-21
Anonymous

As ridiculous as this ruling is, there (appears to be) one way to get around it: modify the source code of the web server (and other tools) in order to remove the logging capability altogether - or to otherwise ignore any loggable identifying information.

This should not be necessary, but if a sc...

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Delete This! 2007-08-24
qneill

This has some interesting DRM implications. I worked as a contractor on a system aimed at storing all cable content at the headend - a centralized DVR if you will.

The multi-year multi-million dollar deal was scuttled by the content providers who balked at losing control of their bits. They argu...

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Delete This! re: removing logging 2007-08-24
qneill

Anonymous wrote:
There (appears to be) one way to get around it:
modify the source code of the web server (and
other tools) in order to remove the logging
capability altogether

Better yet - dynamically loadable logging modules. Don't install them until you need them (to debug live sy...

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Tor for privacy, Tor for freedom 2007-09-01
Krishna E. Bera

One remedy that i havent seen mentioned in the article or comments is the use of anonymizing proxies. Tor (tor.eff.org) uses onion routing and encryption to ensure that
1) websites never get a user's ip address;
2) no one in between (including the ISP) can read the packets and figure out what us...

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