Law & jurisdiction
What happens if you receive a subpoena or court order?
We assess whether it is valid legal process from a court with jurisdiction over OnionVPS. If it is, we comply with exactly what is ordered and nothing beyond it. In practice that is very little: an email address and a payment reference. If it is not valid, we reject it. Either way, the warrant canary reflects reality.
Because we never collect identity documents, billing addresses, phone numbers or card details, and do not generate connection logs, there is very little that any order can produce. This is the central design decision of the service: minimise what exists rather than promise to guard it.
Where the law permits, we notify the affected customer before responding, so that they have the opportunity to challenge the order themselves. Where a gag order forbids notification, we cannot notify — and the warrant canary is what carries that information instead.
See also: Warrant canary
7 answers in Law & jurisdiction
- Is offshore hosting legal? Yes. Renting a server in another country is an ordinary commercial transaction, and no jurisdiction we operate in prohibits it. Offshore hosting chang…
- Does the DMCA apply to offshore hosting? The DMCA is United States copyright statute. Its notice-and-takedown procedure and safe harbour apply to service providers situated in the United Stat…
- What is an MLAT and why does it matter for hosting? A mutual legal assistance treaty is the formal channel through which one country asks another to gather evidence on its behalf. It matters because a f…
- What content is not allowed on your servers? Child sexual abuse material, which we report to the appropriate authority. Malware command-and-control, ransomware infrastructure and exploit kits. Ph…
- How do you handle abuse complaints? Complaints are triaged by evidence, not by volume. Automated copyright notices to non-US locations are forwarded to you for information and no action …
- Will my server be suspended if someone complains about it? Not for a single unverified complaint. Suspension is reserved for active, ongoing harm: an instance participating in an attack, distributing malware, …