National Security Letters
The executive branch of the U.S. government issues National Security Letters which allow federal agencies to obtain customer data without the review of a court. The National Security Letters are also accompanied by an indefinite nondisclosure order, which prohibits Twilio from disclosing the receipt of such letters. In the interest of privacy and accountability, it is Twilio’s practice to request that the agency initiate a judicial review or withdraw the nondisclosure component of the request.
Accordingly, Twilio has obtained permission to publish the following National Security Letters as well as the correspondence reflecting the lifting of the nondisclosure restrictions. The published documents have been minimally redacted in order to protect the privacy of the subjects of the request and as directed by the agency to protect the privacy of the requesting agents.
Twilio will continue to publish National Security Letters received where nondisclosure orders have been lifted, and will restate ranges of National Security Letters for the corresponding time range in subsequent Transparency Reports. Due to the restraint on free speech imposed by current law, Twilio continues to be prohibited from providing a full accounting of requests it receives for customer information in the form of National Security Letters.
Twilio continues to oppose the prohibition on companies from disclosing the specific number of National Security Letters received by a company. Twilio opposes this prohibition based on the belief that government requests should not be issued in secret, and should only be issued with proper transparency, accountability and oversight.
Please email transparency@twilio.com with specific questions or feedback.
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