Part 9: Miscellaneous and general provisions Chapter 2: General Section 261: Telecommunications definitions
This section provides relevant definitions in relation to telecommunication systems, services and operators.
	The Act defines communications data in respect of telecommunications systems, services and operators to provide for technologically neutral, modernised definitions. Communications data is data held by a telecommunications operator or available directly from the network which identifies a person or device on the network, ensures that a communication reaches its intended destination, describes how a person has been using a service or is about the architecture of the telecommunication system itself. Communications data is divided into entities data and events data.
	Subsection (2) defines a telecommunication. It includes communications between persons, between a person and a machine and between machines.
	Subsection (3) defines entity data as data about entities or links between them but does not include information about individual events. Entities could be individuals, groups or objects.
	Subsection (4) defines events data as data which identifies or describes events taking place on a telecommunication system or other device which consist of one or more entity engaging in an activity at a specific point, or points, in time and space.
	Subsection (5) defines the subset of entity data and events data which constitute communications data. The authorisation levels provided for in Schedule 4 reflect the fact that the set of events data as a whole contains the more intrusive communications data.
Example 1: Entity Data:
Phone numbers or other identifiers linked to communications devices; address provided to a communications service provider; or IP address allocated to an individual by an internet access provider.
Example 2: Events Data:
The fact that someone has sent or received an email, phone call, text or social media message; the location of a person when they made a mobile phone call or the Wi-Fi hotspot that their phone connected to; or the destination IP address that an individual has connected to online.
	Subsection (6) provides a definition of content based around the meaning of the communication excluding any meaning that can be inferred from the fact of the communication. While it is possible to draw an inference from the fact a person has contacted another person this is distinct from the content of, for example, the telephone call.
	Subsection (6)(b) makes clear that anything which meets the definitions of systems data within section 264 is not content.
	Subsections (8) to (14) define communication service providers and systems for the purpose of the Act.