Section 51 of Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act No 5 of 2018: Expedited preservation and partial disclosure of traffic data

(1) Where a police officer or an authorised person has reasonable grounds to believe that —
(a) any specified traffic data stored in any computer system or computer data storage medium or by means of a computer system is reasonably required for the purposes of a criminal investigation; and
(b) there is a risk or vulnerability that the traffic data may be modified, lost, destroyed or rendered inaccessible, the police officer or an authorised person shall serve a notice on the person who is in possession or control of the computer system, requiring the person to —
(i) undertake expeditious preservation of such available traffic data regardless of whether one or more service providers were involved in the transmission of that communication; or
(ii) disclose sufficient traffic data concerning any communication in order to identify the service providers and the path through which communication was transmitted.
(2) The data specified in the notice shall be preserved and its integrity shall be maintained for a period not exceeding thirty days.
(3) The period of preservation and maintenance of integrity may be extended fora period exceeding thirty days if, on an application by the police officer or authorised person, the court is satisfied that —
(a) an extension of preservation is reasonably required for the purposes of an investigation or prosecution;
(b) there is a risk or vulnerability that the traffic data may be modified, lost, destroyed or rendered inaccessible; and
(c) the cost of the preservation is not overly burdensome on the person in control of the computer system.
(4) The person in possession or control of the computer system shall be responsible to preserve the data specified —
(a) for the period of notice for preservation and maintenance of integrity or for any extension thereof permitted by the court; and
(b) for the period of the preservation to keep confidential any preservation ordered under this section.
(5) Where the person in possession or control of the computer system is a service provider, the service provider shall be required to —
(a) respond expeditiously to a request for assistance, whether to facilitate requests for police assistance, or mutual assistance requests; and
(b) disclose as soon as practicable, a sufficient amount of the non-content data to enable a police officer or an authorised person to identify any other telecommunications providers involved in the transmission of the communication.
(6) The powers of the police officer or an authorised person under subsection(1) shall apply whether there is one or more service providers involved in the transmission of communication which is subject to exercise of powers under this section.

Disclaimer: This document is not to be taken as legal advice.

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