US Government to Request Network Operators to Retain Data
Here is a ZDNet article on U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller requesting US Network Operators to retain customer data for a particular period of time. This annoucement was made during a private meeting with network operators and major industry players.
In a private meeting with industry representatives, Gonzales, Mueller and other senior members of the Justice Department said Internet service providers should retain subscriber information and network data for two years …
… The closed-door meeting at the Justice Department, which Gonzales had requested, according to the sources, comes as the idea of legally mandated data retention has become popular on Capitol Hill and inside the Bush administration. Supporters of the idea say it will help prosecutions of child pornography because in many cases, logs are deleted during the routine course of business.
Network operators typically do not keep customer-related information, transaction, access and system logs for a long period of time. These customer transaction data and logs require a large amount of data storage. This data storage requirements can be significant and could incur a significant amount of costs to the network operator. The more data to keep the more storage space is needed. However, there are benefits to data retention. Its most important use is lawful intercept. This is the use of private information in the pursuit of criminal activity and in the aid of law enforcement. There are also other legitimate uses of this data such as customer profiling, system troubleshooting and capacity planning.
Legally-mandated data retention has been gaining ground in many countries lately. The European Union has just recently passed legislation requiring their network operators to retain certain customer data. The EU regulation requires network operators to keep call accounting records, access and transactions logs for a period of six to twelve months depending on its importance. In the Philippines, the NTC is also drafting regulations to require a certain retention period for such information amongst local network operators. There are numerous benefits to such data retention regulation particularly in the field of law enforcement. However, privacy regulations must first be in place to ensure that this information is not abused.
