Law Enforcement and Government Data Requests
2019 Transparency Report
In General
As part of official investigations, law enforcement agencies and other governmental officials (e.g., an Office of a District Attorney) sometimes request certain information from technology services providers. This LinkNYC Transparency Report is intended to provide our users with an understanding of the number of valid requests we receive from law enforcement and governmental entities, and how we handle them.
Our Requirements
We require a valid subpoena, court order, or other valid legal demand in order to process a governmental information request. While we are legally obligated to respond to lawful requests for customer-related information, we are also committed to protecting our customers’ privacy. We carefully review all legal requests we receive and actively push back on requests that are procedurally deficient, overly-broad, or otherwise improper or invalid.
Data Requests and Responsive Disclosures
Generally, government requests are made pursuant to a criminal investigation. In many cases, we produce only some or none of the information requested, either because we do not have it, or because we do not believe the request is valid. The table below lays out the number of valid data requests we received, and of those requests, how often we disclosed at least some information.
| Valid Data Requests Received | Valid Data Requests Which Resulted in Some Responsive Disclosure of Information | |
|---|---|---|
| January | 5 | 2 |
| February | 2 | 1 |
| March | 1 | 0 |
| April | 4 | 1 |
| May | 1 | 0 |
| June | 3 | 0 |
| July | 0 | 0 |
| August | 2 | 0 |
| September | 2 | 0 |
| October | 2 | 2 |
| November | 3 | 1 |
| December | 2 | 1 |
| Total | 27 | 8 |
| Nature of Information Requested | # of Disclosures |
|---|---|
| Video | 1 |
| Subscriber name | 0 |
| Subscriber account info | 0 |
| Device information (MAC, etc) | 0 |
| IP address | 0 |
| Location of a Link that made a call at a specific time | 7 |
| Recipients of Information | # of Disclosures |
|---|---|
| New York State District Attorney, NY County | 2 |
| New York State District Attorney, Bronx County | 1 |
| EDNY Grand Jury | 1 |
| SDNY Grand Jury | 1 |
| Defense Attorney | 1 |
| Police Department of City of New York | 1 |
| City of Staunton Circuit Court | 1 |
Please review our Privacy Policy and FAQs for specific information about how information is treated, our user notification policies, and our obligations to respond to information requests.
