Requests from Authorities & Third Parties

An Agency that wants identity-linked information about a terminal must use the Disclosure process on the Platform. Equatorium will not release that information by email, telephone, letter or any other channel, and will not treat a separate legal demand from an Agency as a way around the Disclosure Policy. If an Agency serves Equatorium with compulsory legal process, Equatorium will ask it to submit the same matter as a Disclosure Request, and will respond to the process itself only as described below.

Equatorium may receive requests from bodies that are not Agencies, for example courts or law enforcement in another country, regulators, or parties to civil litigation. Equatorium handles them as follows.

• Valid legal process. We require legal process that is valid and binding on Equatorium under the law that applies to Equatorium and to the data, such as a court order, warrant or subpoena. We do not respond to informal requests for personal information.
• Jurisdiction. We check that the requesting body has authority over Equatorium and the data requested. Requests from foreign authorities must normally come through a mutual legal assistance treaty or other recognised international channel.
• Specific and narrow. The request must identify the information sought with particularity, for example a terminal number and a time period. We do not respond to requests for bulk data, for all terminals in an area, or for information about people identified only by characteristics.
• Challenge. We will seek to narrow or challenge requests that are overbroad, unclear, not legally valid, or that would require us to act inconsistently with the protected-person rules of the Disclosure Policy, and we will disclose only the minimum information legally required.
• Data held for an Agency. Where a request concerns information that relates only to an Agency’s use of the Platform, such as its account, workflows, Disclosure Requests or audit log, we will direct the requester to the Agency where we can, and will notify the Agency unless we are legally prohibited from doing so.

Requests by private parties for personal information about another person will be refused unless accompanied by a court order binding on Equatorium.

Unless prohibited by law or by a court order, or where notice would create a risk of death or serious harm, we will notify an affected Agency before disclosing its information, so that it can seek to protect it. Where a gag order applies, we will consider whether to challenge it and will give notice when it lapses.

Where a request concerns an individual identifiable from the data we hold, we will consider whether we can lawfully notify that individual, taking into account that we generally do not know the individual’s name or contact details.

We may disclose information without legal process where we believe in good faith that doing so is necessary to prevent an imminent risk of death or serious physical harm, and the request comes from an authority competent to act on it. Emergency requests must explain the emergency and be confirmed in writing by the authority. We disclose only what is needed to address the emergency, record the request and the disclosure, and may later ask for legal process. Emergency requests can be sent to [email protected] with “EMERGENCY” in the subject line.

Equatorium does not build backdoors into the Platform, does not give any government direct or unsupervised access to its systems or data, and does not voluntarily hand over encryption keys. Every access to identity-linked data, by Agencies or by Equatorium staff, goes through the controls described in the Disclosure Policy, or through the legal-process and emergency procedures on this page, and is logged. If Equatorium is ever compelled to change this, it will, to the extent the law permits, update this page.

Equatorium will not provide information to any person or body where doing so would breach applicable sanctions or export control laws, including restrictions on the transfer of sensitive personal data, such as precise geolocation, to countries of concern or covered persons under 28 CFR Part 202.

Our annual transparency report includes the number of requests received from authorities and third parties other than Agencies, by type of requester, and how many resulted in disclosure of some, all or no data. Where the law allows, it also reports the number of requests subject to non-disclosure orders, in ranges. A draft of the current report is available on request from [email protected]. See Privacy Request Statistics.

Send legal process to [email protected]. Our address for service: 16192 Coastal Hwy, Lewes, DE 19958, United States, c/o Harvard Business Services Registered Office Mail. Please include the requesting body, the legal authority, the specific information sought (terminal number and time period), a deadline and a contact for questions. Equatorium does not accept service by Platform support tickets.