Re: Weiner -- questions for the techno-literate

[pnwmom]

When you text someone on a phone, do those texts get recorded somewhere, or do they disappear forever from both phones after the session is over?

When you I.M. someone, if you don't print out the conversation before you shut down the computer, do those posts disappear, too?

[Codeine]

1. Depends on your provider.

Some archive texts for a short time, others don't hold them at all. So far as I know my provider (T-Mobile) keeps no text records.

[HipChick]

2. Depends on the IM..some of them save the conversation

some don't

[Skip_In_Boulder]

9. Or at least they say that don't

But the reality seems to be that these days everything gets archived at some level.

[bemildred]

3. You should never assume anything at all on the internet which is not encrypted is private. nt

[pnwmom]

5. That IS my universal assumption. Anything I type might be out there, forever. n/t

[bemildred]

6. Phone conversation is the same deal, pictures, documents, anything at all. nt

[napoleon_in_rags]

4. Assume everything gets recorded until company policy specifies otherwise.

And even then be wary. The issue is marketing data. Meaningless data like texts contain valuable brand name keywords that show market penetration of productions, which is worth a lot to corporations...So you can't assume somebody is throwing that gold info in the trash.

[SoDesuKa]

7. Patriot Act Spying

Since the Patriot Act, it's safe to assume that nothing is too trivial to be stored, possibly for years. After all, today's innocent nobody is tomorrow's terror suspect.

For the record, any time a politician or celebrity is "caught" by somebody who just happened to be listening in, suspect bullshit. Weiner was targeted the same way Eliot Spitzer and Bill Clinton were targeted. None of these people get caught in a random dragnet.

[Xithras]

8. I don't IM anymore, but...

I still have an old icq archive with chats in it from the 1990's. I know that Facebook also saves conversations until the users delete them. As for texts, they stay on the handsets until someone deletes them. Even if one party deletes theirs, the other party still has their copy. With certain types of messaging, that data is stored on an ISP server until the user deletes it.

In Europe, EU law requires ISP's and telephone companies to store emails and texts for a certain period of time for law enforcement use. If you're communicating with someone over there, it's recorded and can't be deleted. There is NO such law in the United States, but the FBI has been pushing for it for years as a way to "fight terrorism and pedophiles". There have been a couple of proposed laws, but none have gone anywhere...yet.