Why Data Retention?

Lately, the Internet news sites and blogs have all been buzzing with reports of privacy infringements by various IT companies, regulation changes and updates on the laws already in effect, all related to data retention policies.

Well what does all this mean? In effect, the majority of companies providing IT services in one way or another have to abide by these new regulations in order to comply with the new standards. Initially, data retention was not mandatory, but it soon became clear (mostly in the past few years) that legal, administrative, commercial and even social interests can be better protected through such an initiative.

This article describes how the Axigen messaging solution (www.axigen.com) is in compliance with both United States and European Union currently effective laws and policies related to data retention and data preservation. These measures were adopted by service providers mainly to minimize the risk of deletion or modification of records and communications.

The Axigen Messaging Solution is fully compliant with all the laws and regulations in effect to date over both the United States and the European Union territories. In the next few pages, each area will be treated independently and references to the specific requirements enforced for that area alone will be listed.

First Stop: Europe

European Union data retention policies are listed in the Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC. This Directive can be accessed online at the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32006L0024:EN:HTML