Surveillance Oversight Database

IPCO Annual Report 2017

Fig. 13 Items of data by subject’s relevance to the investigation41
6

7
15

1.8
1.6
0.6

5

Suspect
Associate
Vulnerable person
(other than vicm)
Other relevant person
Vicm
Witness
Next of kin
Complainant

%
63

8.18

Figures 14 and 15 show, respectively, the age of the item of data when it was acquired and,
in relation to traffic and service use data, the period of data acquired. This is relevant to the
question of how long data should be retained by CSPs. It can be seen that almost half of the
data acquired is less than a month old. In terms of traffic data and service use data, public
authorities are most commonly requesting periods of data under 90 days.

Fig. 14 Items of data by age of item at the point of acquisition42
Less than a day
1-7 days
8-14 days
15-30 days
31-90 days
91-120 days
121-240 days
241-365 days
Over 365 days
0

10

20

30

41 This is not based on a full sample of the 757,977 items acquired.
42 This is not based on a full sample of the 757,977 items acquired.

40

50

60

70

80

55