Description

In March 2006, the European Parliament and the European Council approved the EU Directive on Data Retention. This new legal framework, when adopted by the European Union member states, will require all types of service providers of electronic communications or operators of communications networks to retain traffic and location data generated in providing fixed, mobile and Internet telephony, messaging and Internet access. The purpose of this Directive is to harmonise legislation across the European Union on data retention for the detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes. Such an obligation will have great impact on service providers from the point of view of operations and costs. This impact is analysed in this research service.