Community · Legal process
Law Enforcement Guidelines
For law enforcement and government agencies. Members: this is how we handle requests for your information.
1. Who we are
Belavo is operated by Dopin LLC, a Delaware limited liability company registered to do business in California, with its principal place of business in San Francisco, California. Our registered agent for service of process in Delaware and California is listed with the respective Secretary of State. Requests about Belavo members should be sent as described below, not to Apple or to Amazon Web Services, which hold no member records in a form they can produce for us.
2. What information we hold
Depending on the account, we may hold: account email and sign-in provider; display name, birthday, gender and other profile fields; profile photos, evidence photos and videos with captions; chosen city and neighborhoods (we hold no GPS or precise location data); IP addresses and device identifiers from recent sessions (90 days); notes, chat and group messages, including voice messages, while the account exists; introductions, passes, connections, gifts, reports and blocks; Apple transaction identifiers (not payment card details); the face-check result and scores (no biometric templates or selfie video, which are not retained). Retention periods are in the Privacy Policy, Section 6. We cannot produce information we no longer hold.
3. What we require
| Information | Required process (U.S.) |
|---|---|
| Basic subscriber information: email, display name, account creation date, sign-in provider, recent IP addresses | Valid subpoena issued under federal or state law, or court order |
| Non-content records: introductions, connections, times of messages, device identifiers, city and neighborhoods | Court order under 18 U.S.C. §2703(d), or search warrant |
| Content: notes, messages, voice messages, photos, videos, captions | Search warrant issued on probable cause by a court of competent jurisdiction |
Requests must identify the account by the email address on the account or, where that is not known, by the display name together with enough additional detail (city, neighborhoods, approximate age, dates of activity) to identify a single account. We cannot search by photograph. Requests must be on agency letterhead, signed by an authorized official, state the legal authority, the specific records sought, and a reasonable date range, and be served as described in Section 6. Overly broad requests will be narrowed or declined.
4. Requests from outside the United States
We disclose records to non-U.S. authorities only in response to a request made through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, letters rogatory, an order under the CLOUD Act, or another mechanism recognized by U.S. law, unless the request is an emergency described in Section 5.
5. Emergency requests
Where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to prevent imminent death or serious physical injury to any person, we may disclose information without legal process, as permitted by 18 U.S.C. §2702(b)(8) and (c)(4). Send emergency requests to [email protected] with "EMERGENCY" in the subject line, from an official agency email address, describing the nature of the emergency, the person at risk, the specific information needed, and why it is needed without delay. We review emergency requests as soon as they arrive, at any hour.
6. How to serve us
Legal process may be served by email to [email protected] (accepted for convenience; acceptance does not waive any objection, including to jurisdiction or service) or by mail to Dopin LLC d/b/a Belavo, Attn: Legal, 254 Chapman Rd, Ste 208 #25323, Newark, DE 19702, or through our registered agent. We respond to non-emergency requests within 10 business days where possible.
7. Preservation
On receipt of a valid preservation request under 18 U.S.C. §2703(f), we preserve the specified records for 90 days, renewable once for a further 90 days. A preservation request must identify the account and the records to be preserved. We do not disclose preserved records without the appropriate legal process in Section 3.
8. Notice to members
Our policy is to notify a member before disclosing their information in response to legal process, so that they may object, unless we are prohibited by law or court order, the request is an emergency under Section 5, or we believe notice would create a risk of harm to any person or would interfere with an investigation into child exploitation, violence or trafficking. Where notice is delayed by a non-disclosure order, we give notice when the order expires.
9. Child safety
We report apparent child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) as required by 18 U.S.C. §2258A, and preserve the related content and account data as the law requires.
10. Testimony and authentication
We provide a certificate of authenticity for records produced where requested. We do not provide expert testimony. Requests for testimony of a records custodian must be made by subpoena with reasonable notice; we may seek reimbursement of costs as permitted by law.
11. Cost reimbursement
We may seek reimbursement for costs of responding to legal process where permitted by law, including 18 U.S.C. §2706, except for emergency requests and child-safety matters.
12. Requests from members' lawyers in civil matters
Civil subpoenas for another member's records are handled under the same standards. We will notify the affected member where the law allows. Members seeking their own records should use the privacy rights process in the Privacy Policy, which is faster.
13. Transparency
We will publish annual figures on the number of law-enforcement requests received and the percentage with which we complied, starting with the first full calendar year of operation.