Example: Information Collected for Statistical Purposes

Below is an example of the information written to log files based on a standard request for a World Wide Web document:

xxx.yyy.com, -, 5/8/99, 3:37:51, W3SVC, WEB, cpsc.gov, 2125, 332, 7485, 200, 0, "GET, /index.html, Mozilla/4.04 [en] (Win95; U), http://www.consumer.gov/index.html, 123.123.23.12-1633920240.29265185, -,

xxx.yyy.com (or 123.123.23.12)-- this is the host name (or IP address) associated with the requester (you as the visitor). In this case, (....com) the requester is coming from a commercial address. Depending on the requester’s method of network connection, the host name (or IP address) may or may not identify a specific computer. Connections via many Internet Service Providers assign different IP addresses for each session, so the host name identifies only the ISP. The host name (or IP address) will identify a specific computer if that computer has a fixed IP address.

5/8/99, 3:37:51 -- this is the date and time of the request.

W3SVC, WEB, cpsc.gov -- this is the name of the service, server computer name, and server host name (or IP address).

2125, 332, 7485 -- this is the processing time, bytes received, bytes sent.

200, 0 -- these are the status codes - 200 is OK - the request was filled, and 0, there were no Windows NT errors.

GET, /index.html -- GET is the operation performed, followed by the location of the requested file.

Mozilla/4.04 [en] (Win95; U) -- this identifies the type of browser software and operating system used to access the page, which may affect the design parameters to use in constructing the pages.

http://www.consumer.gov/index.html -- this indicates the last page the person viewed, which indicates from where people link to our Web pages and how they move around in our web site.

123.123.23.12-1633920240.29265185, - -- session ID if appliable

Requests for other types of documents use similar information. No other user-identifying information is collected. The log files are destroyed after three years.