Telecom NZ & Vodafone NZ won't be storing texts; crime issue

I picked up this story from TVNZ that states Vodafone NZ doesn’t bother archiving text messages transmitted by its customers — and that Telecom NZ is planning to do the same by the end of this year. The storing of text messages is an additional headache for operators. Let’s be clear, it’s certainly not rocket science — a few decent servers can handle an archive, no problem — but it’s just an arse for operators, especially when they’ve already been paid for and delivered the service.

But, text archives are becoming more and more useful for Police investigators. (That, and the cell location data from the towers too)

The TVNZ article points out that both NZ operators aren’t going to bother archiving text messages in future, unless legally mandated to do so.

So there’s a question. Should your operator store your text messages indefinitely?