What is Communications Data?

[Ian G Batten]

On Thu, 21 Nov 2002, Charles Lindsey wrote:
> BTW, I wish Peter and Simon would stop arguing about the use of the word
> "content". Yes, we know it is a very broad term, which makes it useless
> for discussion. But it is clear that people usually mean on this list
> when they mention it is "pure content" (i.e. full content less traffic
> data). So lket us use that term where relevant, and also assume that
> when we speak of "content", and the context so allows, "pure content" is
> what we mean.

Why not define ``traffic data'' to be ``that which is logged in the
normal course of transmission except...'' and ``content'' to be
``everything else''.  The exclusions would be simple, presumably just
about reducing the level of detail in web proxy logs.  The DPA could
then be relied on (choke) to handle the issue of how much logging is
reasonable and proportionate.

ian