Law Enforcement Guidelines

Law Enforcement Guidelines

These guidelines are for law enforcement agencies (LEA) when making a request for information about a Blacknight account, or data hosted on our network.

Blacknight is an Irish company and for any legal requests from government agencies/law enforcement outside of the Ireland, we require that the request be served via an Irish court or An Garda Síochána.

Requesting information

Blacknight collects personal information solely for the purpose of providing the services we offer and for billing and accounting purposes. At each point of collection, we will endeavour to provide full transparency as to the purpose, retention, transfer and use of such data. To protect your privacy, we will not distribute your name, email address, domain name, unless required to do so to comply with any applicable law, a summons, a search warrant, a court or regulatory order, or other statutory requirement, or where same is required in relation to the successful provision of services. Full details on our privacy policy can be obtained from blacknight.com/privacy

To request information for a site hosted on Blacknight, the site’s IP address and a date range must be specifically included in the request. We cannot process overly broad or vague requests. If your inquiry alerts us to a violation of our policies or Terms of Service, we will handle it via our usual abuse procedures, which may include contacting the user regarding their misconduct or suspending the site entirely.

What Information Is Available?

The length of time data is retained varies depending on the type of data and actions of a user.  Expired or cancelled subscriptions are generally destroyed within 30 days or sooner. Additionally, customers can destroy their data as they wish.

Before providing information to a non-account owner, we require a request signed by a Garda Superintendent or higher grade officer, warrant, or Irish court order, unless belief in good faith that there is an emergency involving death or serious physical injury.

Upon receipt of a valid request, we can provide user registration information such as the first and last names, phone number, email address, the date/time stamped IP address from which order was placed and account holder physical address. For domains where we are the registrar of record, we can provide whois details for the domain.

What Information Is Unavailable?

Here are some examples of data, which we are unable to provide:

  • Credit Card information.
  • Records of session times and durations.
  • Client MAC addresses

Requests from Government Agencies/Law Enforcement

  • We can disclose what data is accessible and available, the content of customer communications with Blacknight, or other forms of content.
  • Only upon receipt of a valid request signed by a Garda Superintendent or higher rank , summons, a search warrant, a court or regulatory order, or other statutory requirement will  Blacknight turn over user information.

Emergency Requests

As Irish law permits, we may disclose user information to law enforcement without a warrant or court order when we believe that doing so without delay is necessary to prevent death or serious physical harm to an identifiable victim. Where possible all emergency requests should be sent via the Garda cyber crime bureau.

Notifying Blacknight Users

We will notify customers of any legal process regarding their account unless we are prohibited by LEA or court order from doing so.

Preservation Requests

Blacknight will preserve available account information and customer data, where feasible for 90 days upon receiving a request from An Garda Síochána, this may be extended for another 90 days upon request.

Process for making a request

All requests should in the first instance be made in writing to [email protected] and should include return contact details.

All Legal documents can also be served by mail to:

Blacknight Internet Solutions Ltd.
Unit 12A Barrowside Business Park,
Sleaty Road,
Graiguecullen,
Carlow,
Ireland.
Eircode: R93 X265

Please make your requests as specific and narrow as possible, including the following information:

  • Full details on authority making the request
  • The name and badge number of the officer making the request
  • An official email address and contact phone number
  • The IP address, or domain name(s) and date range of interest
  • The description of the types of records you need

Please allow up to 5 working days for your request. Blacknight reserves the right to make changes to any of the foregoing practices at its sole discretion.