Responding to a subpoena for subscriber records.
A subpoena arrives on a Friday at four. Someone has to decide what it can compel, what it cannot, and what a response looks like that will still hold up a year from now. Here is that decision, step by step, from the provider's side.
Not every instrument reaches every record.
The Stored Communications Act (18 U.S.C. § 2701 and following) sets out what a provider may disclose and against which instrument. The tiers are the first thing a response has to get right, because producing more than the instrument compels is its own failure.
Subpoena
Basic subscriber information: name, address, telephone or account numbers, service dates, means of payment, and similar identifiers. Grand-jury, administrative and civil subpoenas all sit here, each with its own limits.
Court order
Transactional records beyond basic subscriber information — who a subscriber communicated with, session and connection logs — on a court's finding of specific and articulable facts.
Warrant
The content of communications. The highest tier, with the highest showing, and the one a provider should expect before producing anything a subscriber actually said or wrote.
Preservation & exigent
A preservation request holds records in place for 90 days pending process; an exigent request asks for voluntary disclosure in an emergency. Neither is a subpoena, and each has its own desk.
Six steps, every time.
The same sequence whether the instrument is a grand-jury subpoena or a civil one, whether it names one account or forty.
Receive and log
Every request gets a case number, a received date and a copy of the instrument the moment it arrives — before anyone reads it. The log is the beginning of the chain of custody.
Validate the process
Is it signed, is it from a court or authority that can issue it, does it name this provider, does it identify the subscriber or account with enough precision to act on? A defective instrument is returned with the defect stated, not filled.
Match the tier
A subpoena reaches basic subscriber information. Transactional records — who a subscriber communicated with, session logs — generally need a court order under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d). Content generally needs a warrant. A request that asks for more than its tier allows is narrowed to what it can compel.
Pull exactly what is named
The date range, the identifiers, the record types in the instrument — nothing outside them. Over-production is a privacy failure; under-production is a compliance failure. Both are avoidable with a disciplined pull.
Authenticate and deliver
Records are produced in a form that can be authenticated — a records custodian declaration where required — and delivered to the requester by the method the instrument specifies, with the case log updated.
Close and keep
The case is closed with what was produced, to whom, and when. The file is what answers a question a year later — from the requester, the subscriber, or a court.
Subpoenas, answered.
What is a subpoena for subscriber records?
A formal demand — from a grand jury, a government agency, or a party to civil litigation — for records a communications provider holds about a subscriber. Under the Stored Communications Act (18 U.S.C. § 2703), a subpoena alone reaches basic subscriber information: name, address, telephone or account numbers, length of service, means of payment, and similar. More sensitive records need a higher tier of process.
Can a subpoena compel a provider to produce the content of communications?
As a general matter, no. Under the Stored Communications Act the content of communications is reached by a warrant, and transactional records by a court order under § 2703(d), not by a subpoena. A provider that produces content on a subpoena has produced more than the instrument compelled. The first job in every response is matching the request to the tier of process that can reach it.
What is a "Google subpoena" or a subpoena to a large platform, and how is a carrier different?
People search "subpoena Google" because large platforms publish their own law-enforcement guidelines for how process must be served and what each instrument reaches. A carrier is in the same position under the same statute — with one difference: most carriers do not have a dedicated legal-compliance desk, so the subpoena lands on whoever opens the mail. That is the gap a records-production service fills: a named desk, a validated process, a defensible file.
What is a preservation request, and does it require disclosure?
A request under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f) that the provider preserve specified records pending further process. The provider must keep the records for 90 days, extendable once by a further 90 on request. It does not authorize disclosure; it holds the records in place while the requester obtains the instrument that does.
What is an exigent request?
A request for disclosure without process where the requester states an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury. Federal law permits a provider to disclose in that situation; it does not require it. The provider decides, in good faith and on a documented basis. Subsentio handles these through a defined form and a 24-hour desk, not an unlogged phone call.
Can a provider recover the cost of responding?
Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 2706) provides for reimbursement of costs reasonably necessary to assemble and provide records in response to certain legal process, with exceptions for some record types. Whether and how to invoice is a policy decision for the provider; a records-production service tracks the cost basis either way.
What does Subsentio actually do with a subpoena?
Everything after the envelope: log it, validate it, match it to its tier, pull exactly what it names from the carrier's systems, authenticate the production, deliver it, and keep the file. The carrier is notified, not burdened. Emergencies and law-enforcement requests go to [email protected]; civil records requests to [email protected].
Send us the envelope.
Subsentio's records-production desk handles every step above for carriers across the United States — validation, production, authentication and the file — on a 24-hour watch.
Records production at Subsentio → Law-enforcement request forms