In the spirit of keeping sensitive data safe, and our private lives private, I was a little disturbed by a recent article I found on Wired News. They are referencing a newly released Dept. of Justice (DoJ) memo which outlines the retention periods for major Telecoms on data they’re storing about your: texting – detail/content; IP session and destination information; call details, etc.
The table below lists the retention periods of the various telecoms. There are some significant differences between the companies on their retention periods and what they retain. Verizon appears to be the most privacy–friendly from a retention timeframe, however they’re the only company that is storing actual text message content.
The Dept. of Justice memo was dated August 2010, but was recently unearthed by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act.
The document release comes 2 mos. before the Supreme Court hears the case testing the government’s argument to allow the use of GPS devices to monitor suspects without a warrant.
The full article can be found here: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/09/cellular-customer-data/
Good info to be aware of.
It’s good practice to have Sensitive Data Scanning to help track your information.
Nancy Sykora
Sr. Account Executive
