Law Enforcement Policy

1. Law enforcement contact

Submit all legal process, preservation requests, and emergency disclosure requests through our inquiries form, which delivers directly to the account monitored by our legal contact.

Include the words LAW ENFORCEMENT REQUEST or, for exigent circumstances, EMERGENCY DISCLOSURE REQUEST at the start of your message, along with an official agency email address we can reply to. We acknowledge properly submitted requests, ordinarily within three business days.

2. Legal process we require

• Basic subscriber records (account email, account creation date, most recent sign-in timestamps, IP addresses associated with the account): valid subpoena, court order, or equivalent legal process.
• Non-content records (message metadata such as timestamps and participants, match records, transaction records): court order under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) or equivalent.
• Content of communications (message text, photos, profile media): a search warrant issued on probable cause by a court of competent jurisdiction, or a valid exception under applicable law.

Requests from outside the United States should be submitted through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, letter rogatory, or another legally recognized mechanism, unless applicable law provides otherwise.

3. What a valid request must include

• The requesting agency name, officer name, badge/ID number, and official email.
• Specific account identifiers (the account email address, profile display name and city, or account ID). We cannot process requests based on a first name alone.
• A defined date range and a clear description of the records sought.
• The legal authority relied upon, and a copy of the signed legal process.
• A response deadline that allows a reasonable time to comply.

Overbroad, vague, or legally insufficient requests will be narrowed or objected to.

4. Preservation requests

We will preserve available account records for 90 days pending service of legal process, and will honor one 90-day extension on request, consistent with 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f). Preservation does not disclose records; separate legal process is required for disclosure.

5. Emergency disclosure requests

Where we believe in good faith that there is an emergency involving a danger of death or serious physical injury to any person, we may disclose information without legal process to the extent permitted by law. Emergency requests must come from an official law enforcement email address and describe the nature of the emergency, the person at risk, and why a delay would create a risk of harm.

6. Child safety and CSAM

Crip has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), child sexual exploitation, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation of any person. We report apparent CSAM to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) as required by 18 U.S.C. § 2258A, preserve related records, and cooperate with the resulting investigations. Child-safety escalations may be submitted through our inquiries form with CHILD SAFETY at the start of the message. See our Acceptable Use Policy for the underlying prohibitions.

7. User notice

Our policy is to notify users of requests for their information before disclosure, so they may seek to protect their rights, unless we are legally prohibited from doing so (for example, by a court-ordered non-disclosure provision) or unless we believe notice would create a risk of harm, including in child-safety and emergency matters.

8. Data retention and availability

We only produce records we actually hold at the time of the request. Users can permanently delete their accounts, which removes their profile, photos, matches, and messages from our systems, so records may not be available for closed accounts. See our Privacy Policy for details on what we collect and how long we keep it.

9. No fees, no informal disclosure

We do not disclose user information in response to informal requests, phone calls, or requests from private parties presented as law enforcement. Civil litigants must serve valid civil process. Nothing on this page waives any objection, right, or defense available to us or to our users, and nothing here creates any obligation beyond applicable law.