Wow, that's invasive.
This stuff is barely scratching the surface of the data those companies collect and maintain, likely for long periods of time, just to analyze and improve customer experience.
> data transfer volume of every web site that I visited over their network
Aggregate data usage is one thing, but retaining any kind of detailed logs on where one goes or how much data was used on a specific site is unnecessary for the base provisioning of network connectivity.
Heh, just to analyze and improve customer experience? Nothing else a bit more unsavory?
> Heh, just to analyze and improve customer experience? Nothing else a bit more unsavory?
The point is this data would get captured regardless, surveillance or no. Mass surveillance (at least in this matter) often isn't so much about what gets captured, but how long it gets retained and who gets access to it.
I found this article [0] describing the situation in various countries, with the following info for the United States:
> Data Retention Period = 1 Year for Internet metadata, email, phone records
> Authorization required to access the data = Various United States agencies leverage the (voluntary) data retention practiced by many U.S. commercial organizations like Amazon through programs such as Prism and Muscular.
> Status Of Data Retention Regime = No mandatory data retention regime
I'm guessing the above means that metdata (user ip and also user web and email destinations) are held for a year, but retaining actual user data (email contents, etc) is not mandated.