Traffic Data

Information generated by electronic communications systems relating to communications routing, duration, timing, and volume, but not the content itself. Traffic data includes: IP addresses, timestamps, data volumes, connection durations, device identifiers, and communication patterns. In telecommunications contexts, traffic data enables service provision, billing, and network management. From a privacy perspective, traffic data can reveal sensitive information—communication patterns might expose relationships, locations, habits, and even infer content through metadata analysis. Under ePrivacy Directive and GDPR, traffic data is personal data requiring protection. Telecommunications providers may process traffic data for billing and network management but must delete or anonymize it when no longer needed for those purposes, with limited exceptions for fraud detection, security, and legal obligations. Organizations should: minimize traffic data retention, implement security protecting against unauthorized access, obtain appropriate consent for non-essential uses, provide transparency about traffic data processing, and support anonymization where possible. Traffic data's sensitivity means processors must carefully balance operational needs against privacy protection.