U.S. Transparency

Report

2023

(1st half)

Verizon’s Transparency Report

for the First Half of 2023

Verizon’s Transparency Report presents the number of demands we received from law enforcement in

the United States and other countries where we did business during the first half of 2023.

such as a valid law enforcement demand or an appropriate request in an emergency involving the danger

of death or serious physical injury.

The total number and types of demands we receive continues to be fairly stable compared to prior six-

month periods. In general, we have seen an increase in the number of warrants and a decrease in the

number of general orders. (We refer to a “general order” as any order other than a pen register, trap and

trace, wiretap, or warrant.) This is due in part to Supreme Court rulings requiring law enforcement to

demonstrate probable cause before obtaining location information.

* Based on updated information, we have made minor adjustments to the numbers from the first half of 2021 above since originally releasing our

Transparency Report for that time period.

demand is invalid and therefore rejected. Often, we receive valid demands seeking information about a

phone number serviced by a different provider, meaning that we have no records to produce. Likewise, we

regularly receive demands seeking data that we do not possess. This includes situations where we do not

collect the type of data that law enforcement seeks or where the requested data is beyond our retention

periods.

We also received National Security Letters (NSLs) and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)

Orders, which we address in a separate table at the end of this Transparency Report.

Although this Transparency Report focuses on the demands we receive from law enforcement, we also

receive discovery requests for data in civil cases. Our team carefully reviews each civil request to ensure

its validity, just as we do in criminal cases. Subpoenas in civil cases are generally issued pursuant to

9,002 civil subpoenas sought information about 24,498 customer selectors. The term “customer

selector” refers to an identifier (most often a telephone number) that specifies a given customer.

Demands often seek information about multiple selectors pertaining to the same customer. (For example,

a demand may seek information on multiple phone numbers belonging to the same customer.) For this

reason, the number of selectors listed in this Transparency Report is typically greater than the number of

customer accounts. Approximately 63% of the civil requests we received sought information on only one

selector (and thus only one customer), and about 93% sought information regarding three or fewer

selectors (and thus three or fewer customers). During the first half of 2023, we did not produce any data

in response to 51% of civil discovery requests. Like with criminal demands, some civil requests were

legally invalid or should have been directed toward different providers. However, the most common

Subpoenas

We received 61,919 subpoenas from law enforcement in the United States during the first half of 2023.

We are required by law to provide the information requested by a valid subpoena. The subpoenas we

receive are generally used by law enforcement to obtain “subscriber information,” meaning the type of

information that appears on a customer’s phone bill. We continue to see that approximately half of the

subpoenas we receive seek only subscriber information. Those subpoenas typically require us to provide

only the name and address of the customer associated with a given phone number or IP address. Other

subpoenas may ask for certain transactional information, such as the phone numbers that a customer has

called. The types of information that we can provide in response to subpoenas are limited by law. We do

approximately 71% of the subpoenas we received sought information on only one selector (and thus only

one customer), and about 89% sought information regarding three or fewer selectors (and thus three or

fewer customers).

Orders

A court order must be signed by a judge and must indicate that the law enforcement officer has made the

proper showing required under the law. Court orders may compel us to provide certain types of

information to the government. We do not provide law enforcement any content (such as text messages

or emails) in response to a general order.

“general order” to refer to any order that is not a wiretap order, pen register order, trap and trace order,

to phone numbers as they are dialed, while a trap and trace order compels us to provide law enforcement

with real-time access to the phone numbers from incoming calls.

We received 4,393 orders to assist with pen registers or trap and trace devices during the first half of

2023, although generally a single demand is issued to establish both a pen register and a trap and trace.

Far less often, we are required to assist with wiretaps, where law enforcement accesses the content of a

communication as it is taking place. We received 382 orders for wiretaps during the first half of 2023.

Warrants

We received 21,835 warrants during the first half of 2023. To obtain a warrant, a law enforcement officer

must show a judge that there is “probable cause” to believe that the evidence sought is related to a crime.

This is a higher legal standard than what is required for a general order. A warrant may be used to obtain

stored content (such as text message content or email content), location information, or more basic

subscriber or transactional information.

During the first half of 2023, we received a total of 25,374 general orders and warrants. They sought data

Content and Location Information

may store through our services, such as text messages or emails. Verizon only releases such stored

content to law enforcement with a probable cause warrant. We do not produce stored content in

response to a general order or subpoena. During the first half of 2023, we received 11,699 warrants for

stored content.

for location data. In addition, we received 3,013 warrants or court orders for “cell tower dumps” during the

warrant or order compelling us to provide a “dump” of the phone numbers of all devices that connected to

a specific cell tower or site during a given period of time.

Emergency Requests

Law enforcement may request information from Verizon that is needed to help resolve serious

emergencies. We are authorized by federal law to provide the requested information during such

emergencies, and we have an established process for responding to these emergency requests in

accordance with the law. To request data during these emergencies, a law enforcement officer must

certify in writing that there is an emergency involving the danger of death or serious physical injury to a

person that requires disclosure without delay. These emergency requests are made in response to active

violent crimes, bomb threats, hostage situations, kidnappings, and fugitive scenarios, often presenting life-

threatening situations. In addition, many emergency requests are submitted in search and rescue settings

or when law enforcement is trying to locate a missing child or elderly person.

typically made available to the PSAP when a 9-1-1 call is made. Occasionally, PSAP officials may need to

contact the relevant telecom provider to obtain information that was not automatically communicated by

virtue of the 9-1-1 call or by the 9-1-1 caller.

National Security Demands

The table below sets forth the number of national security demands that we received during the

applicable period. Under Section 603 of the USA FREEDOM Act, we are now able to report the number of

2019 – 2019 – 2020 – 2020 – 2021 – 2021 – 2022 – 2022 – 2023 –

* The government has imposed a six-month delay for reporting this data.

National Security Letters

During the first half of 2023, we received between zero and 499 NSLs from the FBI. Those NSLs sought

information regarding between 1,000 and 1,499 “customer selectors,” which are information points (such

as telephone numbers) used to identify customers. Recall that the number of selectors is usually greater

than the number of customer accounts. The FBI may seek only limited categories of information through

an NSL: name, address, length of service, and toll billing records. Verizon does not release any other