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Law Enforcement Assistance

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Law Enforcement Assistance

Vodafone is required to assist law enforcement agencies (‘Agencies’) in combatting crime and protecting victims as part of our state-granted licenses, across all countries in which we operate. Each of our subsidiary companies is subject to the domestic laws of the country where it operates. 

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What are Agencies? 

Agencies can refer to a broad range of governmental organisations, but includes police, customs, immigration, intelligence agencies, regulatory bodies and courts.  Before sharing information with any Agency, Vodafone validates their credentials and legal status. 

What data does Vodafone share with Agencies? 

Law enforcement agencies frequently seek access to data to progress their investigations. They typically make two types of requests: 

This is the information about a communications event and can include information like the users’ identifier (a telephone number or IP address), the timestamp and duration of a call, the location of the device when a call was made, and details about the registered subscriber of a number, but not the content of the communication itself. 

This is a more intrusive but less common type of request, where agencies seek access to the content of the communication itself and is typically used only to tackle the most serious offences – when other less intrusive techniques have already been exhausted.

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How do Agencies use this data?

Agencies use data (either communications data and/or lawful interception) to investigate serious crimes and tackle national security threats. The data that Vodafone discloses can provide invaluable insights to investigators about a suspect’s movement and activities when they commit serious crimes. When disclosed in a timely manner, it can support law enforcement to disrupt crimes such as kidnaps and armed robberies. It can also be used as valuable evidence in the prosecution of offences. Our data can be key to preventing major national incidents, saving lives and upholding rules of law. 

How does Vodafone protect customers when disclosing data? 

At Vodafone, we are required by law to disclose specified data to Agencies. If we do not comply, we could face severe fines or prosecution.  In each country where we operate, we employ local teams of specialists and lawyers to ensure that any law enforcement assistance is both lawful and limited to only the data required for the Agencies to do their job. We have robust procedures in place to ensure that we both meet our law enforcement assistance obligations and respect human rights. Our activities have a line of oversight to two of the Executive Committee sub-committees, and the board of Vodafone Group Plc. We continue to advocate for human rights respecting law enforcement frameworks, globally.  

You can read more about our approach to these topics in our Human Rights Policy Statement and Freedom of Expression Principles. 

Vodafone’s law enforcement assistance disclosures

Transparency is essential for a trusted digital society. At Vodafone we value transparency, so we disclose our work with Agencies in our Transparency Report.  Although domestic law sometimes inhibits our ability to do this, Vodafone remains committed to the greatest possible clarity and is also committed to ensuring that our role is transparent to all. 

Global snapshot of law enforcement assistance

The following is a snapshot of the data from our latest Transparency Report.  You can read more about the data, our methodology and our law enforcement principles in the full report.