4 ms·
> Firms wanted seven years' worth of IP address logs on users who discussed piracy. Does that mean reddit stores ip addresses for 7 years? That seems excessive
by bawolff 3y ago
> Firms wanted seven years' worth of IP address logs on users who discussed piracy.
Does that mean reddit stores ip addresses for 7 years? That seems excessive.
- forgotmypw17 3y agoI think it's basically for the entire account history. You can verify this using the data request feature.
- Arrath 3y agoWhat the lawyers wanted may be very different from what reddit actually keeps.
- vdfs 3y agoRight,I bet reddit hold data for more than 7 years
- mysteria 3y agoI suppose it's possible the poster's IP is stored in the post metadata itself, along with the date, username, and so forth. Don't know if that's how Reddit works but in that case it'll be retained forever. As for the reason for 7 years worth of data, I think that's because the firm wants to go back and search for infringing acitivity on all those IP addresses due to dynamic IP updates and so forth. If the user is still active on Reddit the more recent IP addresses probably are enough to identify him if a warrant is served to the ISP. The ISPs I know only retain a link from a dynamic IP to a subscriber for one to two years max.
- EasyMark 3y agoYeah that's why it's good to start a new reddit account every year and delete the old one. As well as VPN, regularly changing mac address on your router etc.
- Terr_ 3y agoOr if you're like me, Reddit will helpfully shadowban everything you ever wrote on your decade-plus account, while simultaneously claiming you can't use the appeals page because the account is still in good standing. As a bonus, anything anybody ever wrote in response to me is gone too.
- roygbiv2 3y agoThe mac address is layer 2 and no one other than your ISP knows it. Changing it does nothing for your privacy since your ISP knows it anyway.
- EasyMark 3y agoa lot of cable companies will have you keep ip addresses for a very long time. The only way I've found to get a new one quickly (without taking my cable modem offline for many hours) is to swap the mac of the router in ddwrt (router firmware). That works "nearly instantly" as long as you reset your router and cable modem.
- roygbiv2 3y agoFair enough. If I change the mac address of my router the ISP locks me out for a substantial amount of time, deffinately not an option.
- whycome 3y agoI wonder how many years HN stores IP information?
- guerrilla 3y agoe-mail dang and let us know how it goes.