Telecom Industry
KEWDATA helps telecom providers meet UK GDPR and PECR, from consent design and marketing rules to high-volume breach response. Get a PECR and GDPR review.
Two Rulebooks Cover Every Subscriber
Under GDPR, telecom operators carry the same duties as any business holding personal data. They also answer to a second law. The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) add specific rules for:
- Cookies and similar technologies
- Marketing calls, texts and emails
- The traffic and location data your network generates
- Security breaches on public communications services
Telecommunications data protection means meeting both laws for the same records, often in the same system.
The stakes rose in 2026. The ICO can now fine PECR breaches up to £17.5 million or 4% of worldwide turnover, the same ceiling as UK GDPR. There’s no separate Ofcom data protection regime. Ofcom does enforce network security duties under the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021, though, so security failures can draw two regulators.
Telecom customer data arrives at a volume few other sectors match. Small gaps in consent or retention repeat across millions of records.
Data Challenges Specific to Telecom
These five data types create most of the compliance risk for telecom providers:
Call records
Traffic data must be erased or anonymised once it’s no longer needed for transmitting communications, unless you keep it for billing or have consent for added services. Communications data compliance comes down to retention rules your systems actually enforce.
Location data
Using location data beyond carrying calls, for example in a location-based offer, needs the subscriber’s consent and a clear way to withdraw it.
Subscriber information
Identity checks, contracts and support records build detailed profiles, which makes SIM swap fraud and account takeover attractive targets.
Billing data
GDPR requires a lawful basis, accurate records and a defined retention period for every bill, payment detail and itemised call list you hold.
Marketing consent at scale
PECR requires consent, or a valid soft opt-in, for marketing texts and emails, and screening against the Telephone Preference Service for live calls. One flawed consent journey can taint an entire marketing database.
How We Support Telecom Providers
Our telecom privacy compliance support covers four areas:
PECR Compliance Review
We test your cookies, marketing, traffic data and location data practices against PECR, including the cookie exemptions introduced in 2026.
Consent Mechanism Design
We design consent journeys for marketing, cookies and location services that customers understand and your systems can record and honour.
High-Volume Breach Response
We build breach plans for incidents affecting thousands or millions of subscribers. Providers must report breaches to the ICO within 72 hours of becoming aware, and tell affected subscribers where the breach is likely to harm them.
DPO Services
Our DPO as a service gives you an independent DPO who advises on and monitors your compliance, while your business stays responsible for it.
Subscriber data protection
Encryption of call records and billing information, automated retention and deletion rules, and monitoring for unauthorised SIM swaps and identity theft
Multi-country compliance
Data storage that meets local requirements, and subject access request handling across every country you operate in
Fraud and revenue assurance
Detection of fraudulent calls and transactions, encryption against revenue leakage, and full audit trails for internal and external audits
Use Case: Safaricom
Safaricom, one of Africa’s leading telecom operators, partnered with KEWDATA to strengthen subscriber data security and keep pace with changing regulations. Our cloud-based encryption and real-time monitoring helped Safaricom:
- Cut SIM swap fraud through stronger user authentication
- Shorten compliance audits with automated policy enforcement
- Build subscriber trust in how their data is handled
The Result
“We needed a partner who understood telecom-specific threats and compliance challenges. KEWDATA exceeded our expectations.”
Head of Security, Safaricom
Why Choose KEWDATA for Telecom?
Three things set our team apart for telecom providers:
Telecom-Specific Knowledge
We understand traffic data, number porting and network-scale systems, not just general GDPR.
Multi-Jurisdiction Experience
We support telecom sector data privacy across several continents and regulatory regimes.
Network-Scale Monitoring
We detect and respond to threats against subscriber data in real time.
Tom S.
Medical Practice
"Improved control over sensitive medical data"
"Practical guidance on access controls and data protection. Helped define structured access policies and introduced tokenisation for patient identifiers used in analytics."
Sarah S.
Retail, Enterprise
"Reliable partner for telecom data protection"
"Quickly understood telecom data complexity; helped classify sensitive datasets and apply protection measures for subscriber, usage, and billing data."
Pauliina H.
Entertainment, Enterprise
"Effective support for securing customer data"
"Identified where sensitive data lived and applied tokenization and anonymization strategies in a complex telecom environment."
Jordan R.
Computer Networking
"Practical approach to safeguarding e commerce"
"Helped protect PII, payment data, and order histories with tokenization and anonymization; advised on GDPR compliance for international operations."
Charmaine S.
Int. Trade & Development
"Systematic Approach Enhances Data Security"
"Methodical approach through discovery, planning, and implementation; implemented Microsoft Purview for a scalable compliance framework."
Kateryna H.
IT and Services
"Practical approach to protecting sensitive Data"
"Structured data discovery and classification combining technical analysis with finance data privacy expertise; strong masking and tokenization policies."
Snow D.
Market Research
"Practical expertise for telecom information"
"Introduced tokenization and controlled access strategies for subscriber data while still supporting analytics and reporting."
Laura H.
Hospital & Health Care
"Valuable expertise in healthcare protection"
"Strong expertise in healthcare data security; introduced anonymization techniques for safely using patient data in research and reporting."
Get a PECR and GDPR Review for Your Telecom Business
Find the gaps in your consent records, retention rules and breach plans before a regulator does. Book a free call, and our team will scope a UK telecom GDPR and PECR review for your business.
Get a PECR and GDPR Review