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What does it mean when an isp deletes assignment logs after a certain period of time?

dataman123

Member
Do they only delete assignment logs of previous unique ips assigned to you? Lets say you have dynamic ip but its been the same for years, and an isp says they delete dynamic ip logs after 12 months. Does this mean the isp deletes the logs that are older than 1 year even if its the same ip? Or do they retain that information for as long as you retain the ip?

If its a dynamic ip, the isp assigns a new ip every time the lease is out, so if it renews, does this count as a new log? And will that specific assignment be kept for 12 months? Or will the timer only begin once a different ip is assigned? Or in other words, is the log that gets deleted the specific assignment of a new and different ip than before, not the continous reassignment of the same one? So could the isp see that ive had the same ip for several years even if they delete logs after 12 months?
 
Last edited:
Your kit requests the address be renewed probably every 3.5 days. 50% of the duration of your DHCP lease anyway.

Each of those restarts the clock.

If you're on PPPoE each reconnection restarts the clock.
 
Do they only delete assignment logs of previous unique ips assigned to you? Lets say you have dynamic ip but its been the same for years, and an isp says they delete dynamic ip logs after 12 months. Does this mean the isp deletes the logs that are older than 1 year even if its the same ip? Or do they retain that information for as long as you retain the ip?

If its a dynamic ip, the isp assigns a new ip every time the lease is out, so if it renews, does this count as a new log? And will that specific assignment be kept for 12 months? Or will the timer only begin once a different ip is assigned? Or in other words, is the log that gets deleted the specific assignment of a new and different ip than before, not the continous reassignment of the same one? So could the isp see that ive had the same ip for several years even if they delete logs after 12 months?
Your question is too specific and I would think very ISP specific, ie there isn't a single answer, it will vary depending the ISP. I can't imagine how anyone on this forum would have the answer to your question unless they worked for every ISP on the country.

Now being an IT consultant that works with data daily I would store this data in a database this way:

Customer_ID,IP,Date_Time_From,Date_Time_To

When a new IP assignment comes I will add a new record to this table and the Date_Time_To will be null (empty). When the IP stops being assigned to that customer I will update the existing record with the Date_Time_To = Now(). If I am deleting records older than 12 months I will NOT delete any current assignments (ie when Date_Time_To = NULL) as these records are still active and I will only delete records where Date_Time_To > 12 months. So in this case your "old" IP assignment will be kept even after 12 months.

While this would be a logical way to store this data in a database there is no way for you to know if all or any specific ISP use this logic or even if they use a database at all. They could be simply be using log files and just delete the log file after 12 months in which case your old IP assignment WILL be deleted even if it is active.
 
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An email to the ISPs data protection team regarding their data retention policy regarding IP address assignment and logs thereof should yield more information, because an IP address is considered PII (Personally Identifiable Information) where there is a path to tie an IP to a living person.
 
If we are talking about records of what user was on what IP address at the time? Then I expect if an ISP does this it is for legal reasons in case they need to assist in law enforcement or get a legal request e.g. copyright infringement.
 
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