Law Enforcement Guidelines
theName.app — operated by TNAP PLATFORMS PRIVATE LIMITED, 43 Residency Rd, Bangalore – 560025, Karnataka, India.
_Draft — counsel to confirm. Last updated: [date]._
These guidelines are for police, government agencies and courts. If you are a user, see our Privacy Policy instead.
1. Who may ask
- Police, government agencies and courts acting under a law that gives them the power to ask.
- Private parties (for example in a civil case) need a court order. We do not answer letters from lawyers asking for user data.
2. How to send a request
- Portal: legal.thename.app. Sign in with your official email address; we send a one-time code to it. Upload the order or request, get a reference number and follow its status.
- Email: legal@thename.app, if you cannot use the portal. Send from an official address and attach the signed order.
- India: notices through the Ministry of Home Affairs' Sahyog portal reach the same queue.
- Mail to legal@tnap.io and the page tnap.io/legal lead to the same place.
We do not act on requests made by phone, by chat or from a personal email address. Fake orders are a known fraud, so we check every sender.
3. What a request must include
- The authority, and the officer's name, rank and official contact details.
- The law and section you rely on.
- The account: its @name, a profile or content link, or the phone number used to sign up.
- Exactly what you want, and the dates it covers.
- Your deadline, and whether the user must not be told (and the legal reason).
- A signed (or digitally signed) copy of the order.
India — removal notices under IT Rules 2021 rule 3(1)(d) must come from an officer authorised in writing (Joint Secretary level, or Director where none; for police, a specially authorised officer of DIG rank or above), state the legal basis and the unlawful act, and give the exact link to each item.
4. What we may have
| What | Notes |
|---|---|
| Account details | @name, display name, phone number used to sign up, sign-up date and country, date of birth, the account's @thename.app address, linked business profiles |
| Sign-in records | Dates, times and IP addresses of sign-ins, device type. Kept for [period — at least 180 days in India] |
| Posts and listings | Clips, posts, videos, comments, Spaces, listings and reviews that have not been deleted (and items we removed, kept for 180 days in India) |
| Orders and trips | Shop, food, table, ride and stay orders: dates, amounts, addresses, trip records |
| Identity checks | Verification status for sellers, creators, restaurants, hosts and partners. Documents only with an order that covers them |
| Connect mail and calendar | Stored on our servers and not end-to-end encrypted. Contents only with the legal process your law requires for contents (for example a court order or a warrant) |
| Chat and call records | Records such as dates, times and participants, where they exist, for [period — to be set]. Only with an order that covers them |
5. What we cannot give
- The content of chats and calls. They are end-to-end encrypted. We do not have the keys and cannot read, hand over or "unlock" them.
- Passwords. There are none: people sign in with a one-time code sent to their phone.
- Anything already deleted, unless we were asked to preserve it before it was deleted.
6. Removal orders
- India: we remove or disable access within 3 hours of a valid court order or reasoned notice (rule 3(1)(d)), and follow blocking directions under section 69A of the IT Act. We hide the item as soon as the order is accepted; an officer confirms after.
- Content that is unlawful only in your country is blocked in your country, not removed worldwide — unless it also breaks our Community Rules.
7. Emergencies
If someone's life is at risk or they face serious injury, use Emergency at legal.thename.app (staffed [24×7 — to confirm]) or email legal@thename.app with "EMERGENCY" in the subject. Tell us who is in danger, what the danger is and why it cannot wait for an order. We may then share what is needed to prevent the harm (in the US under 18 U.S.C. 2702(b)(8) and (c)(4)). A formal order should follow.
8. Preserving records
Ask us to preserve an account's records while you get an order. We keep a copy for 90 days and for another 90 days if you renew the request (US: 18 U.S.C. 2703(f)). In India we also keep removed content and its records for 180 days (IT Rules rule 3(1)(g)).
9. Child safety
We report child sexual abuse material ourselves — to the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and to the Indian authorities — and keep the evidence for at least one year. If you are investigating such a case, quote the report number in your request.
10. Telling the user
We tell the user about a request for their data, or an order about their content, before we act — unless:
- the law or the order forbids it (for example a US court's non-disclosure order, or a confidential blocking direction in India);
- telling them would put someone in danger, or harm a child; or
- it is an emergency (we tell them once the danger has passed).
If you ask us not to tell the user, give the legal reason.
11. Requests from outside India
TNAP PLATFORMS PRIVATE LIMITED is an Indian company. Authorities outside India should use the mutual legal assistance route with India (for the United States, the India–US Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) or letters rogatory. [US requests: the route and any US agent for service — to be confirmed by counsel.] Emergency requests are accepted directly from any country.
12. Transparency
We publish how many requests and orders we receive, from which countries, and how we answered them. [Link — first report due [date].]
Contact
legal@thename.app · legal.thename.app TNAP PLATFORMS PRIVATE LIMITED, 43 Residency Rd, Bangalore – 560025, Karnataka, India