Centre asks phone companies to keep call records for 2 years for security reasons

Dec. 25: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has amended the Unified License Agreement asking telecom and Internet service providers as well as all other telecom licensees to maintain commercial and call detail records for at least two years, instead of the current one-year practice. The additional time, sources said, was based on requests from multiple security agencies.

Through a notification dated December 21, the DoT has said all call detail record, exchange detail record, and IP detail record of communications “exchanged” on a network must be archived for two years or until specified by the government for “scrutiny” for security reasons. Internet service providers will also have to maintain details of “internet telephony” in addition to the usual IP detail record for a period of two years, the notification said.

Under Clause No. 39.20 of the licence agreement that the DoT has with the operators, the latter have to preserve records including CDRs and IP detail records (IPDR), for at least one year for scrutiny by the Licensor (which is DoT) for “security reasons,” and the Licensor “may issue directions/ instructions from time to time” with respect to these records.

Source from telecom service providers told TIE though the government mandate was 12 months, they keep data for 18 months. They notify the state before clearing data of the particular period. If requests were made through proper channels, required data would be kept after the mandated period, and the rest will be wiped off in the 45 days.