Experts' Group Electronic Data Retention

The Platform on Electronic Data Retention for the Investigation, Detection and Prosecution of Serious Crime was set up by Commission Decision of 25th March 2008, which applied until 31 December 2012.

The Expert Group met 12 times. Its membership and activities are recorded on the Commission's Registry of Experts.

Documents

Published documents produced by the Experts' Group were adopted by consensus or by majority vote where views expressed may not be shared by every member of the group. The group was composed, under Article 3 of the Commission Decision, of representatives of Member States' law enforcement and data protection authorities, MEPs, the European Data Protection Supervisor and representatives of industry. Meetings of the group were chaired by the European Commission directorates-general responsible for Home Affairs and for Communications Networks, Content and Technology.

The group published a number of papers providing technical guidance on the implementation of the directive, information on transposition of the directive and comments on the evaluation and review of the directive. (Publications should not be construed as legal advice. The European Court of Justice continues to be the final arbiter of the meaning of the directive.)

Webmail and web-based messaging (Series A Document 1 [47 KB] , 3 December 2009 and Annex [638 KB] )
Obligation to retain e-mail logs – when records of spam e-mails be retained? (Series A Document 2 [89 KB] , 16 July 2009)
Closer understanding of the term 'transit providers' in relation to its application in Directive 2006/24/EC (Series A Document 3 [147 KB] , 3 December 2009)
Closer understanding of the term 'third party networks and service providers' in relation to its application in Directive 2006/24/EC (Series A Position Paper 4 [61 KB] , 23 July 2009)
Closer understanding of the term 'internet telephony' in relation to its application in Directive 2006/24/EC (Series A Position Paper 5 [47 KB] and Series B Position Paper 5A [72 KB] , 3 December 2009)
Closer understanding of the possibilities of providers to store traffic data in a Member State other than the Member State of origin of the data ('Central data storage') in relation to its application in Directive 2006/24/EC (Series A Document 6 [49 KB] , 11 October 2010)
Closer understanding of the term 'Data security' in relation to its application in Directive 2006/24/EC (Series A Document 7 [120 KB] , 11 October 2010)
Guidance on the term “unsuccessful call attempt” as defined in Directive 2006/24/EC (Series A Document 9 [293 KB] , 8 June 2012)
Economic impact of Directive 2006/24/EC on providers of e-communication networks and services and reimbursement of costs (Series C Document 15 [516 KB] , 8 June 2012)
Guidance on the Member States obligation to submit to the Commission annual statistics pursuant to Directive 2006/24/EC (Series A Document 16, Position Paper No. 16 [76 KB] , 30 November 2012)