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Silk Road discussion / Re: So how do you get an answer out of SR?
« on: July 26, 2012, 04:43 pm »
Your thread title caught my attention because I and my staff answer almost ALL incoming messages with very few exceptions. I don't read every word on the forum, so crying out for my attention here is not the best way to get it, even though it worked in this case. Since you have it, I would be happy to spell out our current data retention policy.
addresses are kept on record until your vendor has marked your item as shipped. I encourage everyone to encrypt their address to their vendor's public key just in case.
messages are kept for two months. again, sensitive data transmitted through our messaging system should be encrypted.
transaction records, including feedback are kept for 4 months. I said 3 in another thread, but upon double checking, it is 4. We do this because the data contained in the transaction record, including the buyer, is used to weight the feedback for that transaction. After 4 months, the age weight has pretty much reduced the weight to zero anyway, so we no longer need the data. If you want further explanation about this, check out the wiki page and forum thread about the feedback weighting system.
the accounting log is kept for 3 months. Only 2 weeks are displayed so an adversary who gains access to your account won't be able to see all of that history.
withdrawal addresses are not kept, but everyone should realize that the time and amount of the withdrawal could narrow down which transaction it was in the blockchain quite a bit, especially if it was an uncommon amount.
deleted items are kept for 4 months. this is to preserve the integrity of the link to the transactions associated with the item.
user accounts with a zero balance and no activity for 5 months are deleted.
If you experienced something contradictory to this, please pm support on the main site and we will be happy to investigate the situation with you and root out any possible bugs.
These time parameters were arrived at through trial and error. They are as tight as we can make them without sacrificing the integrity of the market. Could they be a little tighter? Maybe by a week or two, but please think through the implications of policy changes before you call for them.
addresses are kept on record until your vendor has marked your item as shipped. I encourage everyone to encrypt their address to their vendor's public key just in case.
messages are kept for two months. again, sensitive data transmitted through our messaging system should be encrypted.
transaction records, including feedback are kept for 4 months. I said 3 in another thread, but upon double checking, it is 4. We do this because the data contained in the transaction record, including the buyer, is used to weight the feedback for that transaction. After 4 months, the age weight has pretty much reduced the weight to zero anyway, so we no longer need the data. If you want further explanation about this, check out the wiki page and forum thread about the feedback weighting system.
the accounting log is kept for 3 months. Only 2 weeks are displayed so an adversary who gains access to your account won't be able to see all of that history.
withdrawal addresses are not kept, but everyone should realize that the time and amount of the withdrawal could narrow down which transaction it was in the blockchain quite a bit, especially if it was an uncommon amount.
deleted items are kept for 4 months. this is to preserve the integrity of the link to the transactions associated with the item.
user accounts with a zero balance and no activity for 5 months are deleted.
If you experienced something contradictory to this, please pm support on the main site and we will be happy to investigate the situation with you and root out any possible bugs.
These time parameters were arrived at through trial and error. They are as tight as we can make them without sacrificing the integrity of the market. Could they be a little tighter? Maybe by a week or two, but please think through the implications of policy changes before you call for them.
