Diaspora BD

Government data requests

Last updated 5 November 2026
Draft for review. This policy must be reviewed by a lawyer before public launch. Items in [brackets] are still to be decided.
Diaspora BD's members live outside their home country, and some could be at risk if their details reached the wrong hands, including the government of the country they left. This policy explains how we respond to requests for member data from any government or law-enforcement agency.

Our principles

  1. We only disclose data when the law requires it. We do not hand over member data voluntarily, informally, or in response to a request without valid legal process in a jurisdiction that applies to Diaspora BD.
  2. We read every request narrowly. We challenge requests that are overly broad, unclear, or not legally valid, and disclose only the minimum the law requires.
  3. We tell the member first. Unless the law forbids it, we notify the affected member before disclosing, so they can seek legal help.
  4. No bulk access. We never provide bulk, ongoing, or direct access to our systems, and we do not search for members on behalf of an agency.
  5. Requests from the home countries of our communities get extra scrutiny. A request to identify or locate diaspora members, or to reveal their region of origin, is presumed to put them at risk and will be refused unless a court in a jurisdiction that applies to Diaspora BD orders it.

What we hold

We collect little by design: no precise location, no phone tracking, and region of origin is private unless the member shares it. Uploaded CVs are deleted after they are read unless the member keeps a copy. A request may simply find that we do not have the data asked for.

Emergencies

If we believe in good faith that disclosing limited data is necessary to prevent imminent death or serious physical harm, we may do so and will notify the member afterwards where possible.

Transparency

We will publish the number of requests we receive and how we responded, at least once a year. [First report date to be set after launch.]

Contact

Requests must be sent in writing to [legal contact to be added before launch]. Requests sent to individual staff or members will not be answered.