Got news for everybody....most ISPs already maintain detailed weblogs....
What I'm more interested in hearing if LE (or worse FBI/NSA/CIA) will be able to obtain those without a warrant or not. It is VERY expensive to build a detailed activity record of a single "suspect", you have to download the logs, then find and isolate that particular user's activities. It takes time. I do it where I work with a different web-based system, and the functions are somewhat limited....and it's very painstaking with a lot of moving parts.
What I fear may happen at some point....direct dump of the data to a master server where a supercomputer will do the parsing, and look for phrases or activities on certain sites...then they just need a computer to identify potential criminal (or subersive) activities and go arrest then.
Originally Posted by TexanAtPlay
I have many years working for ISP's (3 in Houston) the easy part is getting the IP and time stamp something happened, then using the search feature of the DHCP logs to reveal whose log in name was in user ON that IP at that time... then its all pre-filtered.
The hard part that costs a lot is web traffic logs.. most ISP's do not log that since people surf a lot the array of HD's needed for say.. 6 months of traffic would fill 1`2 a tennis court of any decent sized ISP. That cost alone for the ISP stops them from doing it for more than maybe 1 month tops...
In this modern age of wireless, a laptop, extension cord with a small multi tap power strip and a wireless coffee house is all I need to randomize things.. can sit there for hours searching for fun.
There is one coffee house I know of where plugs are plentiful, and a lady could sit and arrange things from there. All she needs is her laptop and cell phone, both can be powered off 1 A/C plug, phone relays through the laptop USB. Nice thing is that she can relax, arrange sessions then go to them in the evening.. or if she can find the holy grail of areas, (wifi coffee house to hang at, with 2-3 hotels/motels nearby for random locations) she could set up sessions, go to location A, do a session, return to coffee house and chill till its time for session #2 at location B etc.. all the while she does not live in that area.. she lives 6 miles away.