Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Act 2022

Amendment of section 3 of Principal Act

3. The Principal Act is amended by the substitution of the following section for section 3—

“Obligation to retain user data

3. (1) A service provider shall retain, in accordance with section 12D, user data for a period of one year, or such period as may be prescribed in accordance with subsection (2), from the date on which the data were first processed by the service provider concerned.

(2) The Minister may, for the purposes of subsection (1), prescribe such period (which may be less than one year, and which shall not exceed two years) as he or she considers necessary for, and proportionate to, the purposes of—

(a) preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting offences, including revenue offences and competition offences,

(b) achieving the objectives specified in section 6(1)(b).

(3) The Minister may, in prescribing a period under subsection (2), prescribe different periods for different types of data specified in the definition of ‘user data’ in this Act.”.