Does RIPA 3000 require service providers to retain the contents rather than merely metadata of SMS communications?
<p>The question is not deeper than what is articulated in its title</p>

<p>If you mean the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/23/contents" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000</a> (aka RIPA), it doesn't provide for mandatory <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_retention" rel="nofollow noreferrer">retention</a> of communications data. Broadly speaking, RIPA is about <em>interception</em> as opposed to mass surveillance or retention just in case.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/859/contents/made" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009</a> obliged &quot;public communications providers&quot; to retain what is commonly known as 'metadata', i.e. information <em>about</em> the communication - the originating phone number, the receiving phone number, the date, time and duration (if relevant), the type of call or message - not the content of the communication. See <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/859/schedule/made" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Schedule 1</a>.</p>
<p>In April 2014, in the case known as <em><a href="https://curia.europa.eu/juris/documents.jsf?num=C-293/12" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Digital Rights Ireland</a></em> the Court of Justice of the European Union declared the EC Directive invalid.</p>
<p>In response, the UK made the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/27/contents" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014</a> (DRIPA) - sunsetted on 31 December 2016. This provided for the Secretary of State to issue a data retention notice to a communications services provider (CSP), requiring it to retain the data types set out in the Schedule to the 2009 Regulations. <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/27/notes/division/3/1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DRIPA's Explanatory Notes</a> support my claims above with a summary of the history.</p>
<p>This was replaced by the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/25/contents/enacted" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Investigatory Powers Act 2016</a> (IPA), Part 4 of which deals with the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/25/part/4/enacted" rel="nofollow noreferrer">retention of communications data</a>. Here too the retention is of the metadata not the content (see s11(87) and the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/25/notes/division/6/index.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Explanatory Notes</a>).</p>

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