8/7/2019 Facebook 101 Law Enforcement

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Facebook 101

The Facebook Mission

Facebook provides people with the power to share, making the world more open and connected.

Background

Facebook strives to respect the balance betweenlaw enorcements need or inormation to aidcriminal investigations and our users privacy

rights. As a responsible company we adhere to theletter and spirit o the law.

Our Privacy Policy makes clear that we maydisclose inormation pursuant to subpoenas,court orders, or other requests (including criminaland civil matters) i we have a good aith beliethat the response is required by law. I we believethe law does not support the request, we willpush back and have even gone to court to resistgovernment demands.

Facebooks Legal and Security teams regularly

work with law enorcement ocials when they areinvestigating criminal activity. We have developedmaterials to help them understand the properways to request inormation to aid investigations.

Because the law in this area is complex, Facebookhas internal policies and external guidelines tohelp law enorcement understand Facebook andproper ways to request inormation. A big parto our job is explaining applicable laws and theirlimitations on access to Facebookuser inormation.

All Facebook employees evaluating lawenorcement requests receive specialized trainingand are required to become CIPP (CertiedInormation Privacy Proessionals) certied bythe IAPP (International Association o PrivacyProessionals).

To ensure we are ullling both our responsibilityto comply with the law and our commitment toprotect users rights, we scrutinize every singleinormation request; require a detailed description

o why the request is being made; and i it isdeemed appropriate, share only the minimumamount o inormation.

In rare instances, our policies and laws (like theElectronic Communications Policy Act) allow orrapid sharing o inormation without a courtorder. In the event o a veried emergency, like akidnapping where every minute counts, we eel aresponsibility to transmit limited data that couldsave a lie.

Even in emergency situations, we share only the

minimum amount o inormationlike whether aparticular user has logged in. The sharing must, inour judgment, be in the best interest o the user.The vast majority o requests dont meetthat standard.

A signicant reason people nd Facebook useuland enjoyable is that it is designed to refectpeoples real identieies. We do not encourageor support anyoneincluding law enorcementocialscreating a ake identity on Facebook. Weremove such accounts when they are detected bysweeps o ake accounts or other means.

About Facebook

Founded in February 2004, Facebooks mission is to givepeople the power to share and make the world more open andconnected. Anyone can sign up or Facebook and interact withthe people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is aprivately held company headquartered in Palo Alto, Cali.

Law Enforcement Requests

Updated: Feb. 2011