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Law Enforcement Guide

Thank you for contacting The Sia Storage Company. The following guidelines are intended for law enforcement authorities seeking information about users of sia.storage.

What is Sia?

Sia is a decentralized storage platform powered by blockchain technology. It is maintained by The Sia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. The Sia Foundation is not an intermediary between data uploaders and data storers.

What is The Sia Storage Company?

The Sia Storage Company is a US-based for-profit subsidiary of The Sia Foundation. The Sia Storage Company operates as a separate legal entity and manages the Sia.Storage website.

What is Sia.Storage?

Sia.Storage is managed by The Sia Storage Company. It's an indexer, which is a service built to keep track of the encrypted data stored on the Sia storage network. Many such indexers may exist, and Sia.Storage is just one of them.

It's designed to interface with separately built applications, and those applications are what do the uploading, downloading, viewing, and sharing of files. Sia.Storage simply stores metadata about content and encrypted metadata associated with content uploaded to the Sia network via apps developed by other companies.

File data never flows through Sia.Storage servers and is never accessible by The Sia Storage Company.

What does Sia.Storage store by default?

Sia.Storage will only store metadata about content and encrypted metadata associated with content. Content data, such as files and pictures, never pass through Sia.Storage servers in any form and we never have read access to any of it.

Sia.Storage, and The Sia Storage Company, never stores:

  • Personally identifiable information
    • Names
    • Phone Numbers
    • Emails
    • Credit Card Information
    • Physical Addresses
    • IP Addresses of uploaders
  • Encryption keys to repair data on network, but not to access that data
  • File metadata
    • Name
    • Type

The Sia Storage Company uses third parties for authentication and payments. Those third parties will store all the necessary PII and we only require the identifiers they give us to link payments and logins to users. While we don't store it, we can access it.

We can link content data to a particular user or IP address if, and only if, they share that content using a share link from our indexer. This will look like https://sia.storage/objects/shared/<linkinfo>. If the bolded portion of the shared link contains anything other than sia.storage, it is not a link created with Sia.Storage and we can provide no information at all.

What does the Sia Storage app store by default?

The Sia Storage app, created by The Sia Foundation, stores metadata and required keys to upload and download data. It might also cache content data. The cached data is local to the Sia Storage app. The Sia Storage app does not require any personally identifiable information on its own, but may link to an indexer that requires PII to enable its features.

Other third party apps can connect to an indexer like Sia.Storage. What do they store by default?

We don't know what other third party apps are going to ask from users. We can only assume they are similar to The Sia Foundation apps. We don't give other third party apps access to any PII through our service and they only have access to data they previously uploaded themselves.

Will The Sia Storage Company produce data in response to a law enforcement request?

The Sia Storage Company complies with all valid legal processes. We review each request in connection with its Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and any other applicable company guidance or policies, as well as any applicable data disclosure laws. If The Sia Storage Company determines there is no valid legal basis, or where a request is considered to be inappropriate, we will challenge or reject the request.

The Sia Storage Company reserves the right to respond only upon service of valid legal process issued by a U.S. governmental entity or court, or upon receipt of an applicable MLAT request, letter rogatory, or other process for international cooperation. For more information, you may wish to consult the Office of International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Will The Sia Storage Company notify users of a law enforcement request for account information?

We will provide notice where applicable by law.

Will The Sia Storage Company seek reimbursement?

The Sia Storage Company may seek reimbursement for costs associated with information produced pursuant to legal process and as permitted by law (e.g., under 18 U.S.C. § 2706).

What should legal requests include?

All legal requests should include:

  • Requesting agency name and contact details
  • Nature of the investigation
  • Type of data requested

All requests should include copies of any legal process which has been issued, such as administrative or grand jury subpoenas or warrants.

If you are seeking to submit a preservation request, please provide the details of that preservation request to [email protected].

How should requests be submitted?

Please submit communications to [email protected]. All legal process and requests should be submitted from an official government or law enforcement address. Law enforcement agents who are unable to include the legal process in an email may notify us via email of their limitations so that we may coordinate service of process. Acceptance of legal process by any of these means is for convenience and does not waive any objections, including lack of jurisdiction or proper service.

What if I have other questions?

Please send all legal or law enforcement related questions to [email protected].