Example of Information Collected for Statistical Purposes

Below is an example of the information collected based on a standard request for a World Wide Web document:

xxx.yyy.com - - [23/Sep/1998:00:00:01 -0500]
"GET /pubs/top10.html HTTP/1.0" 200 4695
Mozilla 3.0/www.altavista.digital.com

xxx.yyy.com (or 123.123.23.12)/ -- this is the host name or Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the requester. In this case, (....com) the requester is coming from a commercial address. Depending on the requestor'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 (ISP) assign different IP addresses for each session, so the host name identifies only the ISP. If the computer has a fixed IP address, that address may still be masked if your request is routed through a proxy server. Most ISPs and company Web sites use proxy servers to route Internet traffic. The host name (or IP address) may identify a specific computer only if that computer has a fixed IP address and is not routed through a proxy server.

[23/Sep/1998:00:00:01 -0500] -- this is the date and time of the request

"GET /pubs/top10.html HTTP/1.0" -- this is the location of the requested file

200 -- this is the status code - 200 is indicates the request was filled

4695 -- this is the size of the requested file in bytes

Mozilla 3.0 -- this identifies the type of browser software used to access the page, which indicates what design parameters to use in constructing the pages; Mozilla refers to a Netscape browser

www.altavista.digital.com -- this indicates the last site the person visited, which indicates how people find this site

Requests for other types of documents use similar information. No other user-identifying information is collected.