My belief is that this is not so. Checkuser logs are not the same thing as IP logs. Are you suggesting that should a court, three months-and-a-day after a logged in user made a libelous edit, order the WMF to release the IP address of that user, they would not be able to do so? I suggest they would and probably have. I would like to see a clear citation to where, when and how the WMF retains logs of user activity. Is there actually such an official statement somewhere? And could anyone cite it with a link? The issue with the AOL Search Scandal is a red herring. People are not going to be searching for their own phone number or Social Security numbers within Wikipedia. And even if someone searches for such a thing, there is no way to know that they are looking for details on themselves, or on someone else. Our entry on that regardless notes a lawsuit *four years old* with no resolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_data_scandal Indicative I suggest of it being a non-story.