Law Enforcement Guidelines & Operational Protocols

1 Legal Process Requirements for User Data

The type of legal process required depends on the category of data requested:

• Basic Subscriber Information (name, email, phone, registration and login IP/timestamp data) requires a valid administrative subpoena, grand jury subpoena, or court order under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d).
• Message and Content Records (private messages, photos, and other stored content) require a search warrant issued under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (or an equivalent state warrant) upon a showing of probable cause.
• Requests originating outside the United States must be made through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) or letters rogatory, submitted through the U.S. Department of Justice. We do not respond directly to foreign legal process.

2 Internal Intake, Verification & Escalation Protocol

All law enforcement and government requests are routed to a single designated Compliance Contact rather than to customer support, engineering, or any other team. This ensures every request receives the same, documented handling regardless of who initially receives it.

• Intake: every incoming request is logged in an internal case tracker with a unique reference number, the requesting agency, the legal basis cited, and the date received.
• Authenticity verification: before any data is produced, we independently verify the requesting officer and agency — typically by calling back through the agency's publicly listed non-emergency number (not a number provided in the request itself) and confirming the document was issued by the stated court or agency. Requests that cannot be verified are not actioned.
• Legal sufficiency review: the Compliance Contact reviews each request against the thresholds in Section 1 to confirm the legal process presented (subpoena, warrant, court order, MLAT) is appropriate for the category of data sought, and rejects or requests correction of deficient process.
• Escalation: requests involving imminent safety risk, suspected child exploitation, or ambiguous/overbroad legal process are escalated immediately to outside counsel before any response is issued.
• Minimization: only the specific data responsive to the legal process presented is produced; we do not provide blanket account exports beyond the scope of a valid request.

3 Response Timelines

• Acknowledgement: routine legal process is acknowledged in writing within 3 business days of verification.
• Standard production: responsive data is produced within 10 business days of a verified, legally sufficient request, absent a request for extension or a deficiency requiring correction.
• Preservation requests: actioned within 24 hours of verification (see Section 4).
• Emergency requests: triaged immediately upon receipt, generally within hours (see Section 5).

These are internal targets, not contractual or statutory deadlines, and may vary with request complexity or during active litigation holds.

4 Data Preservation Requests

Upon receipt of an official preservation request submitted on agency letterhead, we will preserve the specified account records for a statutory period of 90 days under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f), pending receipt of formal legal process. The preservation period may be extended for an additional 90 days upon a renewed written request. Preservation alone does not disclose any data — a separate, appropriate legal process (see Section 1) is required before records are produced. Preserved records are placed on internal legal hold and excluded from routine deletion or account-closure processes for the duration of the hold.

5 Exigent & Emergency Requests

Where a government entity believes in good faith that an emergency involving imminent risk of death or serious physical injury requires disclosure of information without delay, we may voluntarily disclose information under 18 U.S.C. § 2702(c)(4). To request expedited emergency handling, email [email protected] with the subject line “URGENT: Emergency Law Enforcement Request” and include the nature of the emergency, the specific data needed, and requesting agency and officer contact information. Emergency requests are triaged and reviewed as a priority; submitting a request does not guarantee disclosure, which remains at our sole discretion based on a good-faith assessment of the facts presented.

6 Child Safety & Mandatory Reporting

Live Rishta is an adults-only platform; registration is restricted to users old enough to marry. Where we identify apparent child sexual abuse material or evidence of exploitation of a minor on our service, we report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline and preserve the associated data as required under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A, independent of and in addition to any law enforcement request. Reports of this nature are escalated internally with the highest priority and are not subject to the standard response timelines in Section 3.

7 Non-Disclosure Orders & User Notification Policy

Absent a valid non-disclosure order under 18 U.S.C. § 2705(b) or another applicable legal restriction, our policy is to notify the affected user that their account information was requested before producing records, so they have an opportunity to object through appropriate legal channels. Where a request is accompanied by a court-ordered non-disclosure or gag order, we comply with the order, suppress notice for its stated duration, and track the order's expiration internally so that notice can be given once it lapses (unless renewed or otherwise directed by the court).

8 Data Retention Schedule

The following reflects what is realistically available to respond to legal process; it does not expand what may be requested, which remains governed by Section 1.

• Basic subscriber & registration records: retained for the life of the account and for a limited period after account deletion for fraud-prevention and legal-compliance purposes.
• Login and access logs (IP address, timestamp): retained on a rolling basis; typical availability is the most recent 12 months.
• Private messages and in-app content: retained for the life of the account; deleted messages and closed accounts are purged on our standard deletion schedule except where subject to a preservation request or legal hold under Section 4.
• Payment records: retained by our payment processor in accordance with its own retention policy and applicable financial recordkeeping law.

9 Cost Reimbursement

We do not charge for routine, individually targeted requests. Where permitted by law, we may seek reimbursement of reasonable costs for unusually burdensome or high-volume requests (for example, requests spanning a large number of accounts). Any applicable costs are communicated to the requesting agency in advance.

10 Records Authentication for Court Proceedings

Upon request, and where legally appropriate, we can provide a certification or declaration authenticating records produced in response to legal process for use as evidence, consistent with the business-records provisions of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Requests for a certified declaration or for testimony should be directed to the Compliance Contact in Section 11 with sufficient lead time before any hearing.

11. Submission Details & Legal Contact

All legal process, preservation requests, and emergency requests should be directed to our designated Compliance Contact:

• Compliance Contact: Compliance Officer
• Email: [email protected]
• Entity: Live Rishta, LLC
• Jurisdiction: Montgomery County, Maryland, USA

Service of process must be transmitted from an official government email address (a “.gov” domain) or directed to our registered agent for service of process. We do not accept service of process at a residential or physical office address listed on this page, as none is published here.