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When a criminal offence occurs, the perpetrator must be found based on traces left behind in order to proceed with prosecution. For online crime, the IP address serves as a direct indication towards the connection and/or the system from which a certain criminal act was carried out.
In the context of the proposed legislation regarding the introduction of a limited retention obligation for telecommunications data for investigation and prosecution purposes, research has been conducted on how to technically identify individual users based on a public IP address. The study examined various relevant societal considerations such as the utility for investigation and prosecution, the privacy of citizens, and the costs for internet providers. Lessons from an international comparison are drawn for the Dutch situation. Various policy options are developed based on the research findings.
The research was commissioned by the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) and conducted by Dialogic in collaboration with Inwilution. More information can be found on the (WODC website)[https://www.wodc.nl/onderzoeksdatabase/3006-identificatie-van-unieke-gebruikers-van-ip-adressen.aspx].
