How long does MSN store personal internet data?

I have never been all that concerned about government spying on me personally as I really have nothing to hide. I am not a domestic of foreign terrorist, don't view child pornography, and consider myself to be generally law abiding.

However, this business of the US government wanting to see Google's search data, and the unauthorized spying by NSA and other federal agencies is starting to make me a little uneasy, just on general principles.

I tried to submit a question to MSN asking how long they maintained records of the sites I visited and so on, but have not received an answer. I don't expect one either. Their privacy policy does not provide any help that I could see. Does anyone know or have a good idea? I have heard 3 years or so, and that seems possible yet excessive, and I have to wonder what is the point of storing all that data (from all users, that is) for such a long period.

I know there are software packages that allow for so-called anonymous surfing that as I understand it run your internet traffic through special proxy servers that effectively hide your IP, but do they actually work as described, and are they reliable? From what I have heard you have to make the leap of faith that the servers are not storing any personal data on their own.

A couple of applications I have seen mentioned in PC magazines are Ghost Surfer and Anonymizer. Anyone have good or bad luck with them, or with another package? Does antispyware have any issues with their operation, e.g. detect something that looks like malware from the way they function?

I also wonder how the system works in that the user is permitted to run his traffic through these proxy servers and obtain a benefit thereby, but at no apparent cost to him. Nothing in life is ever free.

Thanks for your input.

 

Try out tor and privoxy for yourself. it works like a charm.. only problem with all proxys (did the government do this?) is slowness.. but quickly hides your ip good.

http://tor.eff.org/cvs/tor/doc/tor-doc-win32.html

 

Knowing 'em like we do, they'll keep it forever.

 

I read this this morning: Yahoo pleads for US to bale it out on human rights
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29656 I think it is funny that a ISP as big as Yahoo has to ask US government to give it clear guidance on what it should do when totalitarian governments ask it to snitch on their users. Looks like those anonymous proxies are going to be used a lot.