◆ SpookStack

store and retain communications data for up to two years.” In acknowledging the need for dala retention requirements, the EU Parliament and Council recognized that: retention of data has proved to be such a necessary and effective investigative tool for law enforcement in several Member States, and in particular concerning serious matters such as organised crime and terrorism, it is necessary to ensure that retained data are made available to law enforcement authorities for a certain period, subject to the conditions provided for in this Directive.” EPIC’s recommended data destruction mandate would cause the Commission to regress to a course it has long since rejected. If anything, reliance on telephone call records as an investigative resource to protect public safety and national security has only increased and become more critical in the almost twenty years since the Commission revised Section 42.6 of its rules to extend the telephone records retention period.” Notwithstanding this increased reliance on such records, however, the efficacy of the Commission’s current Section 42.6 requirement to meet law enforcement needs has been significantly eroded. While the risks are clear and many, the benefit from a mandatory destruction requirement is largely unclear and certainly limited. The mandatory destruction of some 3 See Council Directive, 2006/24/EC, 2006 O.F. (L 105) 54, Article 6 (“Directive’’), viewable at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/JOHtml do?uri=OJ-L: 2006: 105:som:en:html. See also Mirtam H. Wugmeister and Karin Retzer, Data Retention — implications for Business, 7 NO, 2 Privacy & Info. L. Rep. 7 (2006). 4 See Directive at 4 99. 25 Moreover, as the Commission notes in the Notice, carriers themselves have already expressed concern about potential conflicts with Commission rules that require that call records and other CPNI be kept for at least a minimum period of time. See Notice {| 20 (noting carriers’ comments that destroying records might conflict with the Commission's Part 42 record-keeping rules, 47 C.F.R. §42.01-11).