1. The company explains its process for receiving and responding to non-judicial government requests.
2. The company explains its process for responding to court orders.
3. The company explains its process for responding to requests made by private parties.
4. The company explains its process for responding to requests from foreign jurisdictions.
5. The company’s explanations include the legal basis under which it may comply.
6. The company commits to to carry out due diligence on requests before deciding how to respond.
7. The company’s process commits to push back on unlawful requests.
8. The company provides guidance or examples of policy implementation.
Guidance: Companies increasingly receive requests from third parties – especially governments but sometimes other parties or entities – to turn over data about users or the contents of their communications. This indicator covers requests from government agencies, courts, and private parties. We expect companies to publicly disclose their process explaining how they respond to requests from each type of third party.
Evaluation: This indicator is scored using a checklist, meaning companies can only receive full credit if their disclosure meets all elements in the checklist.
In some cases, the law might prevent a company from disclosing information referenced in this indicator’s elements. Researchers will document situations where this is the case, but a company will still lose points if it fails to meet all elements. This represents a situation where the law causes companies to be uncompetitive, and we encourage companies to advocate for laws that enable them to fully respect users’ rights to freedom of expression and privacy.
Potential sources:
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