Law Enforcement Guidelines
Up4ever cooperates with law enforcement. This page explains how to serve legal process on us, how to request that records be preserved, how to reach us in an emergency, and what information we are likely to hold. Following it is the fastest way to get an accurate response.
These guidelines are for law enforcement officers and government agencies. If you are a rights holder reporting infringing material, use our DMCA page instead. If you are a member of the public reporting illegal content, use the report form.
Put "Law Enforcement Request" in the subject line so your message is routed
immediately. We acknowledge receipt within one business day. Please send requests from an
official government email address.
We handle law enforcement requests by email only. We are not able to accept
or act on requests made by telephone, as we cannot verify them.
1 Legal process we accept
We disclose user information when we receive valid legal process. Please attach the signed document as a PDF. We accept:
- Subpoenas — for basic subscriber information, such as the registered email address, account creation date and IP address, and related account records.
- Court orders — for the records specified in the order.
- Search warrants — for the material specified in the warrant, including stored file content where the warrant covers it.
Requests from outside the United States are handled in accordance with applicable law and, where required, through Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty channels or letters rogatory. Please include a case or reference number, the requesting agency, the officer's name and official contact details, and a clear description of the records sought.
We verify requests
Before disclosing anything, we verify that a request is genuine, including by confirming it with the requesting agency through its official published channels. Impersonation of law enforcement is a known method of obtaining user data, so this step is routine and applies to everyone. It does not delay a properly served request.
2 Preservation requests
If you need records held while you obtain legal process, send a preservation request identifying the account or file. We will preserve the relevant records for 90 days, renewable on request for a further 90 days, and confirm in writing. A preservation request does not itself result in disclosure — legal process is still required for that.
3 Emergency requests
Immediate danger of death or serious physical injury
Write "EMERGENCY DISCLOSURE REQUEST" in the subject line and include the nature of the emergency, the information needed, how it relates to the danger, and an official email address we can reply to immediately. We review these on receipt, around the clock, and respond the same day by email.
Please reserve this channel for genuine emergencies so that it stays fast for the cases that need it.
4 Identifying an account
The more precisely an account or file is identified, the faster and more accurate our response. The most useful identifiers are:
- The username or registered email address.
- A file URL in the form
https://www.up-4ever.net/xxxxxxxxxxxx. - An IP address with the date and time in UTC. Please always state the time zone — a timestamp without one may match the wrong records.
Please also give the time period the request covers. A request for "all records" without a date range takes considerably longer to answer accurately.
5 What we may hold
We keep only what the service needs to run. Retention varies by record type, and we do not guarantee that any particular record still exists at the time of a request — which is why a preservation request early on is worthwhile.
| Record | Typically includes |
|---|---|
| Account | Username, registered email address, account creation date, and the IP address last used to sign in. Held while the account exists. |
| Uploads | The uploading account, the IP address used to upload, file name and size, and upload timestamp. Held while the file exists. |
| Downloads | IP address, the file downloaded, and timestamp. |
| Sessions | Sign-in session records, including IP address. Short-lived, typically around 72 hours. |
| Payments | Where a user has purchased a subscription: the payment method used, amount, date, and the identifier supplied by the payment provider. We do not store full card numbers. |
| Support | Support tickets and the email address used to open them. |
We do not require real names, postal addresses or telephone numbers to register, so in most cases we do not hold them. We cannot confirm the identity of a person behind an account.
6 Notice to users
Our policy is to notify a user when their information is requested, so that they have an opportunity to object, unless we are legally prohibited from doing so, or where notice would create a risk of harm, of destruction of evidence, or to a child. If your request requires that the user not be notified, please say so and cite the legal basis, such as a non-disclosure order.
7 Child safety
Child sexual abuse material is absolutely prohibited on Up4ever. We remove it on discovery, and we cooperate fully with investigations. See our Child Safety Policy for how to report it.
These guidelines are provided for information, are not legal advice, and do not constitute consent to any particular request or a waiver of any objection. Nothing here limits our right to object to a request that is overbroad, defective, or not properly served.