Former attorney-general Philip Ruddock has questioned why cyber cafes are not covered by new anti-terrorism data retention laws.
Mr Ruddock's comments came as Australian Federal Police chief Andrew Colvin suggested he'd prefer to see data kept for seven years.
A data retention bill before parliament would force telcos to retain customer data for two years, which could be accessed by police, ASIO and a range of other agencies investigating crime, terrorism and espionage.
The data would not include a person's web-browsing history or the content of a communication, email or social media post.
Some providers are getting rid of their customer data less than a year after it's generated, while others keep it for six years or longer.
Under the proposed laws, operators of local wi-fi networks such as internet cafes and corporate networks will be exempt from keeping the data.
Mr Ruddock, who served as attorney-general in the Howard government, told a parliamentary inquiry hearing into the bill he had concerns about the exemptions.
"It beggars belief that you have internet cafes and people who go to those sorts of centres, if they were told it's not possible their communications would be monitored, that's where they would naturally go to," he said.
Anna Harmer, from the attorney-general's department, told the hearing that while having these sorts of businesses keep data would be useful, it would be too costly and a compliance burden for them to be covered by the new scheme.
In any case police and intelligence agencies would be able to go to the larger communications companies which provided the ability for the cafes to operate.
Mr Ruddock also questioned why only two years had been mandated, when police and intelligence agencies often required data going back much further.
Ms Harmer said some companies would keep data for longer, particularly those covered by some sections of consumer law which obligated it be kept for six years.
Mr Colvin said police would prefer data be kept for longer and he regarded two years as only a minimum standard.
"There are ISPs who routinely hold it for up to seven years and from a policing perspective that would be beneficial to us," he told the inquiry.
ASIO deputy director-general Kerri Hartland said some investigations, particularly into espionage, went back decades.
The types of data to be held remains unclear, but a draft dataset has been released.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said the lack of clarity on this made it difficult for people to properly debate and discuss the bill.
The committee heard telecommunications data is used in 92 per cent of counter-terrorism investigations, all cybercrime investigations, 87 per cent of child protection cases and 79 per cent of organised crime inquiries.
Mr Colvin said it had been crucial in two major counter-terrorism investigations which prevented attacks.
Providers will have two years from royal assent to the bill to comply with the new retention regime.
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