Guidelines for law enforcement and government requests

What records does FaceSearch hold?

Less than people expect. FaceSearch does not keep a database of the faces that users upload, so there is no index of who has been searched for. The privacy by design page describes the handling in full; the records that can exist for a given account are these.

What process does a request need?

We disclose account records only in response to valid legal process: a subpoena, a court order, a warrant or an equivalent instrument that is binding on the operator in its jurisdiction, or a request made under a mutual legal assistance arrangement that leads to one. Informal requests, requests by phone and requests from private parties are declined and the sender is pointed to this page.

1. 1

   Write from an official address

   Send the request from a government or agency email domain to contact@facesearch.cc with the subject line "Law enforcement request". Requests from personal addresses are not processed.

2. 2

   Attach the legal instrument

   Attach the subpoena, order or warrant as a PDF. State the issuing authority, the case reference, and the law under which the request is made.

3. 3

   Identify the account precisely

   Give the email address on the account or, if you only have a FaceSearch result, the exact URL of the page and the date it was seen. We cannot search our own index by face on your behalf; the acceptable use rules apply to every search, including ours.

4. 4

   Name the records and the period

   List the record types from the table above that the request covers and the date range. Narrow requests are answered faster than requests for "everything".

5. 5

   Wait for acknowledgement

   We acknowledge valid requests within five business days and tell you how long the production will take. Urgent cases follow the emergency route below.

What happens in an emergency?

Where an agency states in writing that a person faces an imminent risk of death or serious physical harm and that the records are needed to prevent it, we review the request immediately and may disclose the minimum records needed without waiting for formal process. Each emergency request is decided case by case by a person. Mark the subject line "Emergency" and include the officer's name, agency, direct contact details, and a short statement of the risk. We may ask for the formal instrument to follow.

Preservation requests

If formal process is being prepared, an agency can ask us in writing to preserve the records of a named account for a stated period, so that a user cannot delete them in the meantime. We preserve the records we hold on the date of the request, for up to 90 days, and extend once on a second written request. Preservation does not disclose anything; disclosure still needs the process above.

What FaceSearch will not do

Will the user be told?

Where the law allows, our practice is to notify the account holder that their records were requested, before disclosure when possible and otherwise afterwards. We do not notify when the request is accompanied by a valid non-disclosure order, when notice would put someone at risk, or when the law forbids it. Users who want to know what we hold about them can export their own data at any time from their account, as the privacy by design page explains.

Requests from outside the operator's jurisdiction

Agencies in other countries should use the mutual legal assistance route available to them so that the request arrives as process we are bound to honour. We respond to foreign requests that arrive this way in the same manner as domestic ones. For questions about which route applies, write to contact@facesearch.cc before sending the request itself.