Law enforcement guidelines
How law enforcement and public authorities can ask CrowOn to disclose or preserve information.
Introduction
CrowOn responds to lawful requests from law enforcement and public authorities in line with the law, our Terms and our Privacy Policy. Send requests through the form below. We don't take them by phone or through general support chat.
If you are a CrowOn user, please use “Contact CrowOn Support” in the Help Center instead of this page.
What to include
- Your agency, the officer in charge, and an official email address
- Your case or reference number and the legal basis (warrant, formal inquiry, and so on)
- The account: its username (@) or profile URL
- The time period and the kind of information you need
We may contact your official channel to confirm a request. If a request is unclear or too broad, we may ask you to narrow it.
Emergency requests
If someone faces an imminent risk of death or serious harm, tick Emergency on the form. It goes to our team first, and we may disclose what is needed before formal legal process.
Preservation requests
To have information preserved before formal process, say so in your request. Information already deleted after its retention period can't be recovered.
Notifying users
When we disclose information in response to a request, we tell the person concerned unless the law forbids it, or doing so would put someone's life, safety or a child at risk.
What we can't provide
- The content of end-to-end encrypted chats (it isn't stored on CrowOn's server in readable form)
- The text of unsent messages or of disappearing messages after they expire (deleted from the server)
- Passwords (only stored in a form that can't be reversed)
Transparency
The number of requests we receive is published by country and type every six months in the Transparency Center.
What CrowOn holds, and for how long
| Information | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Account details, posts and messages | Until the person deletes them or their account |
| Backup copies after an account is deleted | Normally erased within 90 days |
| Text of unsent messages and expired disappearing messages | Deleted from the server at that point |
| Access log (IP address, time, page, response, browser, account ID — never content, searches, email or password) | 90 days, tamper-evident |
| Failed logins and suspicious access | 30 days |
| NOW, Drops and other posts that expire | A short period after they expire, for statistics |
| Viewing history used for recommendations | 400 days |
| ID photos sent for an age check | Deleted once the review is done |
| Evidence of child sexual abuse material (for legal reporting) | 1 year |
| Reports and actions taken, payment records | As long as needed to enforce the rules or required by law |