Last updated October 11, 2021
RingCentral, Inc. and its affiliates (“RingCentral”) are committed to maintaining the privacy and trust of our customers and the free exchange of ideas. This document describes the procedures government agencies, law enforcement authorities, and individuals involved in civil litigation must follow in addition to all applicable legal requirements when they request customer data.
These guidelines (the “Guidelines”) are provided for informational purposes only and do not represent a commitment by RingCentral to provide information. RingCentral reserves the right to respond or object to any Data Request in any manner consistent with applicable law.
These Guidelines do not apply to customers’ requests for their own data. Customers should open a case with customer support to make such requests through https://support.ringcentral.com.
I. RingCentral’s Commitment to Privacy
In accordance with our commitment to maintaining our customers’ privacy and trust:
- As explained further in Section VIII below, to the extent legally permissible RingCentral will notify our customers or partners of any Data Request relating to their data.
- RingCentral will review the legality of each Data Request, and specifically whether the party making the request has a valid legal right to make such request. RingCentral will exhaust all available remedies to challenge the request if, after a careful assessment, it concludes that there are grounds under applicable laws to do so. RingCentral will refuse to provide information in response to any request in which it identifies inconsistencies or inaccuracies.
- RingCentral will provide the narrowest possible set of information permissible when responding to a Data Request based on a reasonable interpretation of the request.
- RingCentral will reject requests that have been improperly served or requests that we deem to be incomplete, overly broad or vague, or unduly burdensome.
- RingCentral reserves the right to object to Data Requests for any reason.
- We may make an exception to these commitments in emergency cases where we believe disclosing customer data will prevent imminent death or serious physical harm to a person. In such an event, we will notify the customer to the extent legally permitted. We include emergency requests in our periodic transparency report.
II. Types of Requests
RingCentral only considers the following requests. Each request must be submitted pursuant to formal legal process.
A. Data Request
A Data Request is a request for information relating to a RingCentral customer account in connection with an official criminal or administrative investigation or proceeding, or a filed civil legal action. Examples of legal process that may serve as the basis for a Data Request include the following:
- Subpoenas
- Court Orders
- Search Warrants
- Civil Investigative Demands
Data Requests may come from government agencies or law enforcement (collectively “Government Data Requests”) or from private parties (“Civil Data Requests”).
B. Preservation Request
A Preservation Request asks RingCentral to preserve customer account data in connection with an official criminal or administrative investigation or proceeding. Preservation Requests must include all of the information outlined in Section V below.
In response to a Preservation Request, RingCentral will generally agree to preserve for ninety (90) days a one-time snapshot of the then-existing account data specified in the Preservation Request, pending service of formal legal process and provided the requestor agrees to the fee schedule set forth herein.
On the ninety-first (91st) day the preserved data may be deleted unless the requestor has provided a formal Data Request in the interim. Any production of preserved data will be subject to the timelines and fees outlined in these Guidelines, which may include an additional fee for any such preservation.
C. Emergency Request
Emergency requests for customer data will not be considered unless they are made using the Emergency Data Request Form or are accompanied by a valid court order. Emergency Requests (if not accompanied by a valid court order) are only appropriate in cases involving the risk of serious bodily harm or death. Absent a court order RingCentral responds to such requests only when RingCentral believes that such harm may be imminent.
D. Expedited Requests
Upon request, and subject to the fees set forth in Section X below, RingCentral may process a Data Request on an expedited basis. RingCentral will determine whether processing may be expedited on a case-by-case basis, which will take into account, among other things, the nature of the request and the resources available to handle it. RingCentral makes no assurances that expedited handling will be available.
III. Submitting a Data Request
A. Service of Process by government agencies or law enforcement
Government Data Requests must be submitted by providing all information requested at the following email address [email protected]. RingCentral will consider only complete requests.
RingCentral will accept service of subpoenas, warrants, court orders, and governmental civil investigative demands or related legal process not requiring the oral testimony or personal appearance of a RingCentral representative, exclusively at the email address [email protected], with a copy by any means authorized under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or California State Law on RingCentral’s registered agent for service of process. Such acceptance of service of process is strictly voluntary and may change at any time and without notice.
RingCentral does not accept service by fax or email for subpoenas, warrants, court orders, and civil investigative demands or related legal process seeking oral testimony or the personal appearance of a RingCentral representative. RingCentral requires personal service on RingCentral’s registered agent for service of process of legal process for these types of requests.
B. Service of Process in Civil Matters
All service of process in civil matters shall be localized through the California state or federal courts, as applicable, and shall conform to the laws of the State of California.
IV. Information to Include in Data Requests
All Data Requests must include the following information:
- Telephone number or user identification number (“UID”)
- A specific date or a narrowly tailored date range (generally up to 2 months).
RingCentral will not respond to any Data Request that could infringe on the privacy rights of a customer not subject to the Data Request. For example, RingCentral allows its customers to add or drop telephone numbers from their accounts through an online portal at any time and as often as they like. As a result, a given telephone number may be assigned to many different users over a comparatively short period of time. Thus, a request for information relating to a given telephone number is (unless targeted to a very short period of time) may relate to more people than just the user(s) who are relevant to the Data Request and impinge on the privacy rights of those people. Government Data Requests.
Depending on the nature of data requested, RingCentral require that any produced data be subject to a reasonable protective order.
To enable RingCentral to verify that a Government Data Request is from an official agency or authority, RingCentral requires that each request include at least the following information:
- Requesting agency’s name
- Requesting agent’s name
- Requesting agent’s badge/identification number
- Requesting agent’s employer-issued e-mail address (RingCentral will not respond to an individual’s private email address or any e-mail address in a domain not associated with the requesting agency)
- Requesting agent’s telephone number (including extension)
- Requesting agent’s mailing address (P.O. boxes will not be accepted)
- Requested response date (allowing for at least 2 weeks for processing).
- Copy of the warrant, court order, grand jury subpoena, or other legal process pursuant to which the request is made, including without limitation any non-disclosure order purporting to restrict RingCentral from notifying customers of the request.
C. Civil Data Requests
The following information is required for any Civil Data Request.
- Requesting party’s name
- Counsel name and applicable State Bar Number
- Telephone number
- E-mail address
- Mailing address (P.O. boxes will not be accepted)
- Requested response date (please allow at least 4 weeks for processing)
- Copy of the subpoena to which the request is made.
Private litigants are strongly encouraged to seek data directly from the RingCentral customer or end user, who can use automated account tools to download the relevant data from their RingCentral Admin Portal. Applicable law limits RingCentral’s ability to produce certain types of data in the absence of a warrant or customer consent.
D. Time for Response
We generally respond to Data Requests handled in the order that we receive them with emergency, law enforcement, and expedited requests given priority. We respond to most requests within thirty (30) days. Response times will be commensurate with the size and complexity of the request.
E. Format of Response
We generally provide responsive information via e-mail in the form of a compressed, password protected file. If the volume of returned data is larger than a few megabytes, we may place the compressed, password protected file for download via a secured RingCentral Box account or FTP server.
V. Information Available in Response to Data Requests
Government Requests: RingCentral may provide Account Information, Call/Fax/SMS Log Data, or Content of Communications in response to valid Government Requests that are properly served. These types of information are described in more detail below. The type of responsive information provided will depend on the type of Government Request and the information requested. RingCentral only provides the Content of Communications with customer consent or when compelled by law to provide the information to the government.
Civil Requests: As a general matter and subject to limited exceptions, RingCentral is not legally permitted to provide the Content of Communications in response to a Data Request from a private litigant. We may provide other readily available Account Information or Call/Fax/SMS Logs in response to narrowly tailored and properly served Civil Requests.
The production of Call/Fax/SMS Logs is frequently unduly onerous, and RingCentral reserves the right to object to such production.
The fees associated with the production of each of these categories of records is outlined in Section XI (Cost Reimbursement).
Definitions
Account Information
Account Information includes the following:
A. Basic Subscriber Information
A report which shows basic subscriber information including, to the extent RingCentral’s customer completed the fields upon registration, the following information:
- Customer’s first and last name
- Contact telephone number
- Company name, if applicable
- Physical or mailing address (Street, City, State, and Zip Code)
- Email address(es)
- Date of account signup and deactivation date.
Please note that RingCentral customers register through an online portal and their names, addresses and other contact information are not verified or regulated by RingCentral in any way.
B. Billing History Information
A report which gives basic information in the form of line items transactions:
- Date of transaction
- Transaction reference number
- Amount of transaction
- Payment method (including the last 4 digits of a credit card or indication of invoice billing)
- State of transaction (success or failure)
- RingCentral does not store or have access to customers’ credit card information.
C. Additional Numbers or Extensions
A list of phone numbers associated with the same account. For active accounts, this list shows the current phone numbers and the date they were added to the customer’s account, removed phone numbers are shown in the Comment Logs. For closed accounts, this report shows all phone numbers ever associated with the account.
D. Comment Logs
A list of activities associated with an account logged either automatically or by RingCentral employees. Each logged activity has a date/time stamp and a brief description of the activity performed.
Call/Fax/SMS Log Records
A list containing the following information:
- Call direction
- Call ID
- Call type
- Dialed number
- Start and end time
- Call duration
Content of Communications
Content includes
- Faxes
- Incoming voice messages
- Content of SMS messages
- Call and video recordings
- Messaging data
RingCentral may deliver the Content of Communications in the following formats:
- Faxes will be delivered as PDF formatted files
- Incoming voice messages and call recordings will be delivered as either MP3 or WAV format files, depending on how our customer has their account setup
- Content of SMS messages will be delivered in a CSV file
- Messaging data will be delivered in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format.
VI. Requests from Non-US authorities
A Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), letters rogatory, or similar process may be required for disclosure of data in connection with Data Request from a non-United States authority.
VII. Limitations on RingCentral’s Retention of Customers’ Data.
RingCentral takes reasonable and appropriate steps to guard against inadvertent or malicious deletion or destruction of data in its systems. RingCentral provides information as available based on our retention policies.
Please note that RingCentral normally deletes or de-identifies a customer’s data within 30-45 days of account closure. In addition, customers have the ability to delete data, such as voicemails and faxes, from their accounts. RingCentral is not able to recover a customer’s data once it has been deleted. RingCentral will provide information as available, based on RingCentral’s retention policies. For more information, please refer to RingCentral Records Retention Policy.
VIII. Notification of Customers
RingCentral will notify our customers or partners of any Data Request to enable them to respond to the request directly, unless legally prohibited from doing so by law or a valid nondisclosure order. If we are prohibited from notifying our customers of the Data Request, we endeavor to use all reasonable lawful efforts to invalidate or waive the nondisclosure obligation and will communicate as much information as permitted to the customer as soon as possible.
IX. Questions/Status Requests:
Questions regarding these Guidelines or any pending request should be directed to [email protected].
X. Fees for Cost Reimbursement:
To cover the cost of responding to requests, RingCentral requires payment of the following fees, to the extent allowable by law, for all Data Requests, regardless of format or requesting party. RingCentral may charge additional fees for especially unusual or burdensome requests, including without limitation any requests not covered in the tables below. All fees are in U.S. Dollars.
Table 1: Fees
$50.00 |
Per account for any combination of the following:
|
$100.00 |
Per account for:
|
$40.00/Month |
Call/Fax Log records per account |
$40.00/Month |
SMS Log records per account |
$80.00/Month |
Per Content of Communications
|
$250.00/hour/Engineer |
Messaging Data
|
$0.25/Page |
Photocopies and facsimiles exceeding ten pages |
$60.00 for travel and $10 per signature |
Per notarized document request (i.e. affidavit) |
$190.00/hour for Paralegal Time $250.00/hour for Engineer Time $450/hour for Attorney Time |
Requests requiring more than 0.5 hours will be billed at a one- (1-) hour minimum. |
Pen Register/Trap and Trace |
RingCentral’s actual cost |
Intercept |
RingCentral’s actual cost |
Payment Methods
Table 2: Payment Methods
Check* |
Make payable to RingCentral, Inc. (Tax ID # 94-3322844) Mail to:
Please indicate “Subpoena Request” and your Invoice Number on the check. *A $45 fee will be charged for any returned checks. |
ACH or Wire Transfer |
Contact RingCentral Accounts Payable Monday through Friday between the hours of 9:00 am and 4:00 pm Pacific Time. Please have your Invoice Number ready to provide to the RingCentral representative. |