OmertaCall PGP key
When this channel applies
Authorities in any country may ask OmertaCall to disclose records without waiting for formal process where they believe, in good faith, that there is an imminent risk of death or serious physical injury to a person. Typical situations include a credible threat to life, a missing person believed to be in danger, and an ongoing risk of serious physical harm. We assess every request on its facts under applicable law: urgency alone does not authorise unrestricted access, and this channel is not a way around mutual assistance or other lawful process. Civil litigants and private parties cannot use it to obtain discovery.
This page describes our voluntary emergency practice. It reflects industry practice and our reading of applicable law, and it does not replace binding obligations that apply to us or to the requesting authority.
What we may disclose
Where the criteria are met, disclosure is limited to the records we hold or control that are needed to avert the identified threat: for example subscriber or account details linking a number to our client, or our own call and message records for a narrow interval. An emergency request cannot restore records that were already deleted, produce records our service never stored, or reach another carrier's network data. We do not hold users' handset or cell-site location. Live interception or prospective collection is not enabled by an emergency request; it requires separate authority under the applicable legal framework.
Required attestation
A request for emergency disclosure must state, under the requesting officer's name and role:
- the person or persons at risk and the nature of the imminent threat;
- why the risk is imminent rather than a general investigative concern;
- how the specific records requested would help avert the threat;
- why waiting for ordinary legal process would be unsafe;
- the precise targets, with telephone numbers in E.164 international format, account IDs or sender IDs, and the narrow UTC date and time interval;
- the requesting officer's name, role, agency and independently verifiable official contact details;
- the requester's PGP public key and fingerprint, as with every law-enforcement request.
An incomplete attestation slows assessment. We may verify the requester through an agency directory, official domain or issuing authority before any disclosure, and we may decline a request that does not establish the criteria.
How to send an emergency request
Submit through the law-enforcement portal or email [email protected]. There is no emergency telephone line. A request sent to another address, including [email protected] or [email protected], is handled as ordinary correspondence and may be delayed.
PGP remains mandatory in an emergency. Submit your PGP public key with the request; our reply and any disclosure are sent only by PGP-encrypted email to a verified recipient. While our own public key is awaiting publication, send only your public key, official credentials and a one-line summary of the emergency, and wait for our encrypted reply before sending case material.
Where EU electronic-evidence rules apply, an authority may instead serve an emergency European Production Order on our designated establishment in Dublin, which follows that instrument's own timetable and safeguards rather than this voluntary practice.
After an emergency disclosure
Emergency disclosure is voluntary and provisional. The requesting authority is expected to follow up with formal legal process, such as a court order, warrant, production order or the applicable mutual-assistance route, without undue delay and identifying what was already disclosed. We record every emergency request and any disclosure in our law-enforcement request log. Client notification may be delayed where notice would itself pose a risk to life or serious physical safety, in accordance with applicable law; we give delayed notice once that risk ends unless another lawful restriction applies.
If the criteria are not met, we refer the requester to the law-enforcement guidelines for ordinary process.