This practice pre-dates the Patriot Act. At least one ISP as far back as 2000 kept about 3 months of emails backed up in the Mail Exchangers, and approximately 7-8 months on tape backup. OK, I looked it up, and my ISP says that they keep e-mails for 90 days and then they are gone, incapable of being retrieved. Retrieved by them FOR you, yes. Retrievable by them? Well let's put it this way, if you had become under the watch of the Abuse Department for some illegal reason, trust me they would have access to those emails.