Government Information Requests

WordPress.com routinely receives requests for information about our users from government agencies around the world. In emergency cases, when permitted by law, we may voluntarily disclose limited user data. In all other cases, we do not voluntarily grant government agencies access to user data for law enforcement, intelligence, or surveillance purposes. We will only disclose user information in response to valid legal process, issued by a U.S. authority. The scope of user information disclosed is dependent on the type of legal process received. For more information on our requirements for information requests, please see our legal guidelines. 

Evaluating Government Information Requests 

We will disclose user information only in response to valid legal process such as a subpoena, search warrant, or court order issued by a U.S. authority, in accordance with the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and/or California state law.

We carefully review all legal process we receive to ensure it is complete and valid. We are unable to process overly broad or vague requests for information. The request must specifically include identifying information such as the relevant URL, email address, or username at issue. For more information on our requirements for information requests and what data may be disclosed, please refer to our legal guidelines.

Additionally, if a request or inquiry highlights a potential violation of our policies or Terms of Service, we will review it in accordance with our standard enforcement procedures. 

Emergency Requests

As permitted by US law, we may voluntarily disclose user information to government or law enforcement agencies if we have a good faith belief that there is an emergency involving imminent danger of death or serious physical injury which requires disclosure of information related to the emergency without delay. 

For detailed information about emergency requests, and how an emergency request can be submitted, please refer to our legal guidelines.

User notification

It is our policy to notify users, and provide them with a copy of any legal requests regarding their account or site (including formal requests for private information), unless we are prohibited by law or a court order from doing so.

You can learn more about our policies and procedures for handling government, and private information requests in our legal guidelines.

Select a time period from the sidebar for detailed information on the government requests we have received.

The graph and totals below represent the number of requests for user information we received from governments and law enforcement agencies between July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2025.