name: Law Enforcement Guidelines slug: legal/law-enforcement version: 1.0.0 effective_date: TBD-pre-publication last_updated: 2026-05-09
Law Enforcement Guidelines
Note: Registered agent must be designated and on file with the Texas Secretary of State before this policy is published.
Plain-English summary. Service of process: registered agent in Texas. Email: legal@sharefree.org. Emergencies: emergency@sharefree.org. We follow the Stored Communications Act — subpoena for basic subscriber info, §2703(d) order for transactional metadata, warrant for content of communications. We notify users by default unless prohibited by law or the matter involves imminent harm or child exploitation. We may seek cost recovery for productions, especially in civil matters.
This page is public and is intended for law enforcement officers, prosecutors, civil litigants, and their counsel. It is informational only. ShareFree users with concerns should email support@sharefree.org, not the addresses below. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911.
ShareFree is operated by ShareFree, a Texas-based peer-to-peer sharing platform. Cross-references in this document — /privacy, /terms, /dmca, /acceptable-use — refer to the corresponding policies on our website.
1. Audience and Purpose
These Guidelines describe how ShareFree responds to legal process from law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, civil litigants, and other authorized requesters seeking information about ShareFree accounts, content, or activity.
This page is not a user-support channel. ShareFree users with account issues, harassment concerns, or platform questions should use support@sharefree.org or the in-app support form. This page is also not a way for users to file legal claims against other users — see §11.
These Guidelines are informational only and do not waive or alter ShareFree's rights, defenses, privileges, or objections. ShareFree expressly reserves all rights to challenge, narrow, move to quash, or otherwise object to any legal process that is overbroad, improperly served, jurisdictionally defective, facially invalid, or inconsistent with the Stored Communications Act ("SCA," 18 U.S.C. §§2701–2713), the Electronic Communications Privacy Act ("ECPA"), the U.S. or Texas constitutions, or other applicable law.
Nothing on this page constitutes a representation that ShareFree will produce particular records in any particular case. Each request is evaluated on its own facts and law.
2. How to Serve Process
2.1 Texas Registered Agent (Service of Process)
Formal service of legal process on ShareFree must be made on our Texas registered agent:
- Registered Agent: [REGISTERED_AGENT_NAME]
- Address: [REGISTERED_AGENT_ADDRESS]
Under Texas law, a registered agent's address must be a physical street address; PO Boxes are not valid for formal service of process. The mailing addresses listed below are for paper correspondence only and are not valid for service.
2.2 Email Channels
ShareFree accepts the following submissions by email. Email submission does not waive any objection to formal service requirements but is the fastest channel for time-sensitive matters.
| Channel | Address | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| General legal / process intake (non-emergency) | legal@sharefree.org | Subpoenas, §2703(d) orders, warrants, civil subpoenas, general legal correspondence |
| Emergency disclosure | emergency@sharefree.org | Imminent danger of death or serious physical injury (see §6) |
| Preservation requests | legal@sharefree.org with subject line PRESERVATION REQUEST | 18 U.S.C. §2703(f) preservation (see §7) |
| DMCA / copyright notices | dmca@sharefree.org | DMCA takedowns only — not a legal-process channel (see /dmca) |
The legal@sharefree.org mailbox is monitored by ShareFree's designated counsel/legal officer, not by general support staff. Encrypted submission via PGP is supported; the public key fingerprint is available on request from the same address.
2.3 Mailing Address
Paper submissions that do not require formal service of process may be sent to:
Attn: Legal Department ShareFree [MAILING_ADDRESS_OR_PO_BOX]
For formal service of process, use the registered agent in §2.1.
2.4 Format Requirements
To be processed, all submissions must:
- Be on official agency or law-firm letterhead
- Be signed (electronic signatures acceptable for emailed submissions)
- Be in PDF (preferred) for emailed attachments
- Clearly identify the requester: name, title, agency or firm, badge or bar number, return phone, and return email
- Specify the legal authority for the request (statute, rule, or court order), and attach the authorizing process (subpoena, order, warrant, etc.)
- Identify the target account(s) using the identifiers in §3
- Specify a reasonable date range for responsive records
ShareFree will not respond to anonymous submissions, submissions from unverifiable senders, or non-conforming requests. We reserve the right to seek additional verification (callback to a published agency number, etc.) before producing records.
3. Required Identifiers
To locate records efficiently, please provide as many of the following as are known:
- ShareFree user ID (UUID — most reliable)
- Username or display name (note: display names are not unique and may be reused)
- Email address used to register the account
- Listing ID, claim ID, message thread ID, or report ID, if the request concerns specific platform activity
- Date and time range relevant to the request, expressed in UTC if possible
- IP address(es) and timestamps if seeking subscriber records by IP
Narrow, well-identified requests are processed faster and produce more useful results. Overbroad or untargeted requests will be objected to or narrowed.
4. What We Will Produce by Process Type
ShareFree complies with applicable federal and state law, including the SCA and ECPA. The summaries below state our general position. Specific facts (e.g., the user's status as a "subscriber" vs. another category, whether records are in "electronic storage," whether the requested information qualifies as "content") may alter the analysis.
4.1 Subpoena (grand-jury, administrative, or trial subpoena in a criminal matter)
Under 18 U.S.C. §2703(c)(2), a subpoena suffices for basic subscriber information.
| Producible with a criminal subpoena | Not producible without higher process |
|---|---|
| Name on account; email address; account creation date; last login date; signup IP and recent login IP(s); registered communities; OAuth provider used at signup (if applicable); IAP receipt IDs and product IDs (we do not have card numbers — see §5) | Content of communications (messages between users); photo content; listing description content beyond what is publicly visible; AI moderation outputs; report content and report narratives; appeal content; transactional metadata not enumerated in §2703(c)(2) |
4.2 Court Order under 18 U.S.C. §2703(d)
A "specific and articulable facts" order under §2703(d) authorizes disclosure of subscriber records plus transactional records.
| Producible under a §2703(d) order | Not producible without a warrant |
|---|---|
All subscriber records listed in §4.1, plus transactional/non-content records: login times and source IPs; listings created (metadata: timestamps, category, status, community); claims initiated/received; messages sent/received (metadata only — sender, recipient, timestamp, thread ID — not body); ratings posted; reports filed (metadata); device-fingerprint hashes (device_hash, ip_hash — both SHA-256, see §5); push-token registration metadata | Content of communications: text of messages between users; photo content; listing or ad content drafts; report narratives; appeal narratives; AI moderation outputs that reflect content |
4.3 Search Warrant under 18 U.S.C. §2703(a)
A search warrant issued on probable cause is required for the content of stored communications and stored content.
Producible under a §2703(a) warrant (subject to the scope of the warrant): content of stored communications (claim_messages body); listing photos and listing/ad content drafts; report narratives; sanction and appeal records; AI audit logs related to the user; any other content-bearing records within the warrant's scope.
ShareFree will produce only what the warrant authorizes and reserves the right to object to overbroad warrants.
4.4 Wiretap, Pen Register, Trap-and-Trace
ShareFree does not currently maintain real-time intercept, pen register, or trap-and-trace capabilities beyond what is technically feasible from existing logs. Requests under 18 U.S.C. §§2510–2522 (Title III), §3121 et seq. (pen/trap), or comparable state law will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Some requests may not be technically achievable; we will say so promptly when that is the case.
4.5 National Security Letters (NSLs)
NSLs will be evaluated under 18 U.S.C. §2709. ShareFree may challenge the non-disclosure (gag) provisions of NSLs to the extent permitted by law and may seek judicial review under 18 U.S.C. §3511.
4.6 Foreign Process / MLAT
ShareFree is a U.S. company and accepts foreign criminal legal process only through the U.S. Department of Justice via the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) process or letters rogatory. Direct requests from foreign law enforcement agencies will not be honored without appropriate U.S. legal process. Foreign civil litigants must obtain U.S.-domesticated process through the Hague Evidence Convention or 28 U.S.C. §1782, as applicable.
4.7 Civil Subpoenas (Fed. R. Civ. P. 45 / Tex. R. Civ. P. 176)
Civil subpoenas are evaluated separately from criminal process and are generally treated more narrowly:
- Content of stored communications is NOT produced in response to a civil subpoena. Under 18 U.S.C. §2702(a)(1)–(2), an electronic communications service / remote computing service is prohibited from disclosing content to non-governmental subpoena. See O'Grady v. Superior Court, 139 Cal. App. 4th 1423 (2006).
- Subscriber and basic transactional records may be produced subject to (a) proper service, (b) jurisdictional sufficiency, (c) user notice and opportunity to object (§8), and (d) cost recovery (§9).
- Civil litigants seeking content from a ShareFree user must obtain it from the user (party discovery), not from ShareFree.
5. What We Do Not Have
The following items are not in ShareFree's systems and cannot be produced by us. Serve other custodians directly.
- Card numbers, CVCs, full bank-account or wallet information. ShareFree does not collect these. In-app purchases are processed by Apple StoreKit and Google Play Billing. For payment-card data, serve Apple Inc. or Google LLC directly.
- Real-time geolocation tracking. ShareFree does not continuously track user devices. We store an approximate location label (community / city) tied to the account, not GPS traces. PostGIS-derived location columns are coarse-grained.
- Voice or video recordings or transcripts. No voice or video calls take place on the platform. We do not record audio or video.
- Cleartext passwords. Passwords are stored as hashes by Supabase Auth. We cannot recover or produce a user's password.
- Off-platform messages. Communications conducted outside ShareFree (SMS, email outside our system, third-party messaging apps) are not in our systems.
- Device fingerprints in cleartext. The
device_fingerprintstable stores SHA-256 hashes (device_hash,ip_hash) — not raw device IDs or raw IPs. We can confirm whether a particular hash matches a stored value if you provide the hash; we cannot reverse a hash to a device. - Identity verification of any kind. ShareFree does not perform government-ID verification. Names on accounts are user-supplied and not verified.
6. Emergency Disclosure (18 U.S.C. §2702(b)(8))
ShareFree may, in its sole discretion, voluntarily disclose information to a governmental entity without legal process when ShareFree, in good faith, believes that an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure without delay. This is a discretionary disclosure under 18 U.S.C. §2702(b)(8) (content) and §2702(c)(4) (non-content).
To request emergency disclosure:
- Email emergency@sharefree.org with subject line
EMERGENCY DISCLOSURE REQUEST. - Include all of the following:
- Requester identity and contact (agency name, officer name, badge/ID number, supervisor name, callback phone number on agency line, return email)
- Nature of the emergency (what danger, to whom, why imminent)
- Specific information required (limit to what is necessary to address the emergency)
- Explanation of why information is required without delay and why normal legal process is not feasible in the available time
- Good-faith certification by the requesting officer
- ShareFree may call back through publicly listed agency numbers to verify identity before producing records. We will not return calls to numbers provided in the request itself for verification purposes.
- The standard ECPA-compliant Emergency Disclosure Request form (available from the U.S. Department of Justice at https://www.justice.gov) is preferred but not required.
ShareFree may decline emergency disclosures that lack a credible articulation of imminent harm. Emergency disclosures are voluntary on our part; nothing requires us to disclose, and no inference of waiver should be drawn from any prior emergency disclosure.
For genuine in-progress emergencies, encourage the user or victim to call 911 directly. ShareFree is not an emergency-response dispatcher, and our response time is not a substitute for 911.
7. Preservation Requests (18 U.S.C. §2703(f))
Law enforcement may request that ShareFree preserve records pending issuance of legal process.
- Channel: Email legal@sharefree.org with subject line
PRESERVATION REQUEST. - Default duration: ShareFree will preserve responsive records for 90 days from receipt of the request.
- Extension: One 90-day extension is available on written request (total 180 days), per 18 U.S.C. §2703(f)(2).
- What to specify: the user(s), date range, and types of records to preserve (e.g., "subscriber records and message metadata for user UUID X from 2026-01-01 to 2026-04-30 UTC").
- Preservation does not produce records to you. A preservation request only requires us to retain the records; production requires separate legal process under §4.
- Internal logging. All preservation requests are logged internally for chain-of-custody purposes.
ShareFree may decline indefinitely-broad preservation requests or requests that amount to standing surveillance.
8. User Notice
ShareFree's default posture is to notify users before disclosing information about them in response to legal process, to give the user a reasonable opportunity to object or seek a protective order.
ShareFree will not notify the user when:
- A non-disclosure provision in a court order, NSL, or grand-jury subpoena prohibits notice
- The matter involves an articulated imminent threat to life or safety
- The matter involves child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or child exploitation — we will not tip off the suspect
- Notice would be futile (e.g., account is inactive, abandoned, or terminated and notification cannot be delivered)
- Notice is otherwise inconsistent with applicable law
We may delay (rather than refuse) notice on case-specific request from law enforcement, supported by an articulated reason and a definite proposed delay period. A blanket request that we never notify, without legal authority for a non-disclosure provision, will not be honored.
CSAM matters are reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) under 18 U.S.C. §2258A and handled per NCMEC procedures.
9. Reimbursement
ShareFree may seek reimbursement for the reasonable costs of searching for, retrieving, and producing records in response to legal process, consistent with 28 U.S.C. §1825, 28 C.F.R. §16.1, the federal Cost Recovery Schedule, Texas state-law equivalents, and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45(d)(2)(B)(ii) for civil subpoenas.
- Civil litigants should expect cost-recovery invoices for any non-trivial production. We will provide a written cost estimate before commencing work on substantial productions and may require advance payment or a deposit.
- Government criminal-process requesters are subject to fee waiver in our discretion; we will generally waive fees for narrow, well-targeted requests.
- ShareFree's costs may include attorney review time where review is required to assess scope, privilege, or user-notice issues.
10. Authentication and Records Custodian Declarations
On request, ShareFree can provide a records custodian declaration suitable for self-authentication under Federal Rule of Evidence 902(11) or 902(13) (or Texas Rule of Evidence 902(10)) certifying that produced records are records of a regularly-conducted activity. To request a declaration, state so in the cover letter accompanying the legal process. We will provide a signed declaration alongside the production.
ShareFree does not, as a matter of course, produce a witness for live trial testimony in response to a records subpoena. Trial testimony requires a separate subpoena and may be subject to objections (undue burden, employee availability, cost recovery for travel time).
11. Civil Disputes Between Users
ShareFree is generally not a party to disputes between users (e.g., disputes over an item exchanged through the platform, ratings disputes, defamation claims arising from user-posted content). We do not mediate user disputes, do not take sides, and do not voluntarily testify in user-vs.-user litigation.
A civil litigant seeking records about another user must serve a properly tailored civil subpoena under §2.4 and §4.7. We will give the affected user notice and an opportunity to object (§8), seek cost recovery (§9), and assert applicable objections.
For ratings, reports, listings, or other content originating from another user that you allege defamed you or otherwise wronged you:
- ShareFree is generally protected as an interactive computer service under 47 U.S.C. §230. We do not edit user content for liability and are not the publisher or speaker of user content.
- For copyright or trademark complaints, see our DMCA / IP Complaints process at
/dmca. - Direct your claim to the user who posted the content.
See also our /terms, /acceptable-use, and /privacy policies.
12. What This Page Is Not
- Not a substitute for proper service of process under §2.
- Not a waiver of any objection, privilege, defense, or right ShareFree may assert.
- Not a representation that ShareFree will produce the records described in any specific case — facts and applicable law govern each request.
- Not an invitation for users to submit legal claims; users should contact support@sharefree.org or use the in-app support form.
- Not a channel for legal process directed at Apple, Google, Supabase, our hosting providers, or any other third party — serve those entities directly.
- Not legal advice. Requesters should consult their own counsel about the requirements of the SCA, ECPA, the Federal Rules, the Texas Rules, or other applicable law.
Cross-references: Privacy Policy · Terms and Conditions · DMCA / Copyright · Acceptable Use Policy
Effective date: [EFFECTIVE_DATE]. Last updated: 2026-05-09.