Metadata Retention Law in European Union

Last updated: January 19, 2024 Reading time: 4 minutes
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The EU data retention law by the European Union, named Data Retention Directive (DRD), was passed in 2006, and therefore, it’s considered the extrusive law for data reservation.

This law has emphasized that Internet providers retain users’ personal information such as incoming and outgoing phone numbers, IP addresses, geolocation, and other key telecom and Internet traffic data for six months to 2 years. Although, the people who are not accused or suspect of any crime are under the Data Retention law.

However, the communication details such as the duration of conversation and the fact that to whom the person is talking is also a Data Retention Directive to the ISPs supported by the authoritarian governments of the UK and US. Yet, the collected data could also be provided to law enforcement authorities.

Law Implementation to National legislation of Countries

Many countries such as Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Norway, and the United Kingdom have swapped the laws into national legislation. Also, some of the countries outside the European Union, such as Serbia and Iceland, have adopted the data retention Directives.