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BIG BROTHER WATCH AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
attached to a communication for the purpose of transmitting the communication and
which ‘in relation to any communication’:
identifies, or appears to identify, any person, apparatus or location to or
from which a communication is or may be transmitted;
identifies or selects, or appears to identify or select, transmission apparatus;
comprises signals that activate apparatus used, wholly or partially, for the
transmission of any communication (such as data generated in the use of
carrier pre‑select or redirect communication services or data generated in
the commission of, what is known as, ‘dial through’ fraud); or
identifies data as data comprised in, or attached to, a communication. This
includes data which is found at the beginning of each packet in a packet
switched network that indicates which communications data attaches to
which communication.
2.25. Traffic data includes data identifying a computer file or a computer program
to which access has been obtained, or which has been run, by means of the
communication – but only to the extent that the file or program is identified by
reference to the apparatus in which the file or program is stored. In relation to internet
communications, this means traffic data stops at the apparatus within which files or
programs are stored, so that traffic data may identify a server or domain name (web
site) but not a web page. For example, the fact that a subject of interest has visited
pages at http://www.gov.uk/ can be acquired as communications traffic data (if
available from the CSP), whereas that a specific webpage that was visited is
http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ripa‑‑forms‑2 may not be acquired as
communications data (as it would be content).
2.26. Examples of traffic data, within the definition in section 21(6), include:
information tracing the origin or destination of a communication that is, or
has been, in transmission (including incoming call records);
information identifying the location of apparatus when a communication is,
has been or may be made or received (such as the location of a mobile
phone);
information identifying the sender or recipient (including copy recipients)
of a communication from data comprised in or attached to the
communication;
routing information identifying apparatus through which a communication
is or has been transmitted (for example, dynamic IP address allocation, file
transfer logs and e mail headers – to the extent that content of a
communication, such as the subject line of an e mail, is not disclosed);
web browsing information to the extent that only a host machine, server,
domain name or IP address is disclosed;
anything, such as addresses or markings, written on the outside of a postal
item (such as a letter, packet or parcel) that is in transmission and which
shows the item’s postal routing;
records of correspondence checks comprising details of traffic data from
postal items in transmission to a specific address; and