RIPA Part I Chapter II consultation

2.18 The Act defines certain communications data as ‘traffic data’ in sections 21(4)(a) and 21(6) of the Act. This is data that is comprised in or attached to a communication for the purpose of transmitting the communication and which ‘in relation to any communication’:

• identifies, or appears to identify, any person, equipment^[26] or location to or from which a communication is or may be transmitted;
  
• identifies or selects, or appears to identify or select, transmission equipment;
  
• comprises signals that activate equipment used, wholly or partially, for the transmission of any communication (such as data generated in the use of carrier pre-select or redirect communication services or data generated in the commission of, what is known as, ‘dial through’ fraud);
  
• identifies data as data comprised in or attached to a communication.
  

This includes data which is found at the beginning of each packet in a packet switched network that indicates which communications data attaches to which communication.

• ^[26] In this code equipment has the same meaning as ‘apparatus’, which is defined in section 81(1) of the Act to mean ‘any equipment, machinery, device, wire or cable’.

2.19 Traffic data includes data identifying a computer file or a computer programme to which access has been obtained, or which has been run, by means of the communication – but only to the extent that the file or programme is identified by reference to the apparatus in which the file or programme is stored. In relation to internet communications, this means traffic data stops at the apparatus within which files or programmes are stored, so that traffic data may identify a server but not a website or page.

2.20 Examples of traffic data, within the definition in section 21(6), include:

• information tracing the origin or destination of a communication that is in transmission;
  
• information identifying the location of equipment when a communication is, has been or may be made or received (such as the location of a mobile phone);
  
• information identifying the sender and recipient (including copy recipients) of a communication from data comprised in or attached to the communication;
  
• routing information identifying equipment through which a communication is or has been transmitted (for example, dynamic IP address allocation, file transfer logs and e-mail headers – to the extent that content of a communication, such as the subject line of an e-mail, is not disclosed);
  
• web browsing information to the extent that only a host machine, server, domain name or IP address is disclosed;
  
• anything, such as addresses or markings, written on the outside of a postal item (such as a letter, packet or parcel) that is in transmission and which shows the item’s postal routing;
  
• record of correspondence checks comprising details of traffic data from postal items in transmission to a specific address, and
  
• online tracking of communications (including postal items and parcels).
  

2.21 Any message written on the outside of a postal item, which is in transmission, may be content (depending on the author of the message) and fall within the scope of the provisions for interception of communications. For example, a message written by the sender will be content but a message written by a postal worker concerning the delivery of the postal item will not. All information on the outside of a postal item concerning its postal routing, for example the address of the recipient, the sender and the post-mark, is communications data within section 21(4) of the Act.