Preservation request
Definition
A formal letter sent to a platform asking it to freeze and retain specified account data pending formal legal process. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f) in the United States, platforms are obligated to preserve data for 90 days (renewable once) upon government request. Most major platforms honour similar requests from foreign law enforcement on a voluntary basis.
Related terms
- Account attribution
- The process of linking a pseudonymous or anonymous online account to a real-world identity. Methods include IP log analysis, device fingerprinting, cross-platform...
- Forensic capture
- Tool-based documentation of online content that records the URL, timestamp, and page hash alongside the visible content. Preferred over manual screenshots in...
- MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty)
- A bilateral or multilateral treaty framework through which countries agree to provide legal cooperation in criminal investigations, including compelling disclosure of evidence...
- OSINT (open-source intelligence)
- Intelligence gathered from publicly available sources without special legal authority. In social media investigation, OSINT covers all content visible to any user:...
- Stored Communications Act (SCA)
- Part of the US Electronic Communications Privacy Act (18 U.S.C. 2701-2712) that governs government access to stored electronic communications and data. It...
Explained in
- Online Account and Social Media InvestigationA formal letter sent to a platform asking it to freeze and retain specified account data pending formal legal process. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f) in the United...