Hotspot networks and data retention – what is stored?
Legal directives for data retention (Directive
2006/24/EG) make it mandatory for EU member states to pass national laws that require data that is produced through the provision and use of electronic communication services to be retained by the service provider for a minimum of 6 months.
Implementation in Germany
The data retention law requires service providers to save electronic communication data to support criminal proceedings.
All telecommunication traffic data, email, telephone or internet, must be saved and stored for 6 months.
Traffic data that should be stored for all internet connections:
- users assigned internet protocol (IP) address
- the unique identifier of the account that uses the connection
- the start and end time for the session of the IP connection
Communication content and sites visited should not be stored
Germany's highest court (Das Bundesverfassungsgericht) has rejected on 2010/03/02 a controversial law requiring communications data to be stored for six months for possible use by law enforcement.
What data is stored in Sylbek Hotspot Server?
The MAC-address, IP-address, unique username and session time will be stored. There are many TXT-Files (around 1MB), which you can download through FTP. See below for an example of a user log.
Sites visited will not be stored.
In brief only the time that a user logs on and off will be recorded. Users can log themselves off (user request) or they can be logged off by the system due to in activity (idle timeout).
If a non unique user name is used, for example 'anette.schick', then additional information about the user such as home address should be stored externally.
MAC-address and private IP addresses can not be seen as unique properties.
Due to the inquiry to save all user activities, we offer Firewall-Logging. With it can be stored additionally all relevant data as source- and destination- IP, protocol and port. Therefore you should be informed about the data retention legislation in Your Country.
What should a hotspot provider take into account?
Connection data can be stored on the unit itself (under System/Logging, hotspot->log) or within the network on a standard Windows or Linux based computer.
Choose as username a unique property such as an email address or customer number from your system.
If you print access cards in prior then make a note of the customers name when you hand over the card.
You will be able get telephone support (incl. with every hotspot system) on how to complete the above task.
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