Mapbox Legal Portal
Law Enforcement Guidelines
Mapbox believes that law enforcement should be able to conduct effective and efficient investigations -- but not at the expense of Mapbox users' rights. Mapbox will review and respond to properly served requests for user information in accordance with its privacy policy, terms of service, and applicable law. Mapbox reserves the right to object to requests that are improperly served, overly broad, or vague. Mapbox will notify its users of requests for their information unless legally prohibited.
Legal Requirements
Non-content user information will not be released to law enforcement except in response to a subpoena, court order, or other valid legal process. Content information will only be disclosed in response to a probable cause search warrant from an agency with proper jurisdiction. Under US law, including the federal Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2701-2712:
- A valid subpoena issued in connection with an official criminal investigation is required for Mapbox to disclose non-content user information as defined in 18 US Code section 2703(c)(2) -- e.g. name, means of payment, and length of service.
- A court order issued under 18 US Code section 2703(d) is required for Mapbox to disclose other non-content information.
- A probable cause search warrant issued under the procedures described in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure or equivalent state warrant is required for Mapbox to disclose user content information -- e.g. maps, data, and user communications with Mapbox -- or user location information.
If, in our good faith judgment, there is an emergency involving the danger of death or severe physical injury, we may also provide the limited information necessary to prevent that harm, if we have it.
Preservation Requests
Mapbox will take steps to preserve a snapshot of existing user information in connection with a criminal investigation for up to 90 days, pending receipt of a properly served law enforcement request.
User Notification
Mapbox will notify users of requests for their account information -- including with a copy of the request -- prior to disclosure unless we are legally prohibited from doing so. Exceptions to prior notice may include emergencies or if such notification would be counterproductive, for example where a user's Mapbox account has been compromised.
Format of Requests
Requests for user information must include:
- User email address
- Details of the specific information being requested and its relationship to an investigation
- Requester's name, title, agency, office, official email address, and direct phone number
- Deadline to respond
Where to Send Requests
Law enforcement officials can submit requests by mail or in person at: Mapbox, Inc. Attn: Law Enforcement Requests, 1133 15th Street Northwest, Suite 825, Washington, DC 20005
While we agree to accept service of law enforcement requests by these methods, neither Mapbox nor our users waive any legal rights based on this accommodation.
Privacy & Security FAQ
Last Updated: Aug 22, 2023
Mapbox provides a location data platform that powers maps and location services. Mapbox provides SDKs (software development kits) and APIs (application programming interfaces), which businesses and developers use to incorporate Mapbox mapping and navigation technologies into the licensed applications and websites they make. The SDKs contain libraries of software code which are incorporated into a customer’s licensed application or website. These libraries of software code facilitate API requests to Mapbox’s location data platform (which is a backend data server, hosted in the cloud (AWS-US)) which then responds with map and location content to the customer’s application or website.
In addition, Mapbox offers an on-premise version of its location data services, called Atlas.
No. Mapbox does not sell personal data.
No. For customers on a monthly active user (“MAU”) billing model, Mapbox maintains counts of MAUs for billing purposes only. Mapbox does not (and cannot) track an end user’s activity across billing cycles and does not build targeted profiles with the data processed through its products/services.
Mapbox applies the principle of data minimization to product development and operations in an effort to collect only limited data from the outset. Mapbox operates a number of technical and organization measures regarding the limited personal dataset that we process, such as strict access controls and prompt deletion of raw log files that contain IP addresses and billing IDs. Mapbox deploys regular ID rotation and 1-way hashing for billing IDs, which must be retained for accounting and billing purposes, to minimize the ability to track user requests over time. Billing IDs are not transmitted with unrelated events, further reducing the feasibility of correlating a user’s activities over time. In addition, Mapbox operates strict anonymization procedures, such as clipping traces, for telemetry events that send location data.
Communication through the Internet requires the presence of IP addresses, which specify each transmission’s origin and destination. When end users engage with applications that access Mapbox products/services through the Internet, the end user necessarily discloses their current IP address to one or more Mapbox servers. IP addresses are retained in cloudfront logs for 30 days for billing and customer usage reporting, unless involved in an ongoing security, anti-fraud, or misuse investigation.
Mapbox receives location data when a Mapbox customer’s end users uses a licensed application that incorporates Mapbox mobile SDKs and the end user has authorized the licensed application’s use of the end user’s device location via their mobile phone or device operating system.
Location data includes fields such as latitude and longitude, altitude, horizontal and vertical accuracy, a session ID rotating every 24 hours, and origin IP address (as would any Internet communication). The IP address that accompanies location data is retained at the load balancer (where it is used for security and PUBLISHED: Aug 22, 2023https://www.mapbox.com/legal/legal-faq Mapbox Customer FAQ, Page 3billing purposes and discarded after 30 days). This IP address is not forwarded to the location telemetry processing pipeline. Location data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and is subject to the principle of least access, with the minimal number of personnel and processes having access to it in its pre-aggregated form.
In the location data anonymization pipeline, the location data is then anonymized by clipping off the origin and destination of the trip and further dividing the trip into segments, which cannot be reassembled. The anonymized location data is then used to improve Mapbox mapping products, including the Traffic and Movement data products.
In AWS in the United States. However, for performance purposes, Mapbox regularly caches content on its AWS content delivery network (“CDN”) located in various regions. Mapbox employees who work for Mapbox wholly-owned subsidiaries may access personal data from the countries where they work in order to support, develop and provide Mapbox products/services.
No. Mapbox’s products/services store and serve source data from an AWS primary region in the US. As noted above, data is cached and served out of various regions outside the US for performance reasons, however Mapbox cannot serve its data from one limited geographic region. To comply with GDPR and safeguard transfers to the US and other countries, please see Mapbox's DPA, Schedule C, which includes the Standard Contractual Clauses released in 2021 by the European Commission.
Yes. Mapbox carefully scrutinizes the personal data it processes within its engineering lifecycle, which includes conducting a privacy review for new (or changed) processing activities. Mapbox follows privacy-by-design principles and works diligently to limit the personal data it processes from the outset. A DPIA is conducted in any situation in which processing of personal data may be considered high risk and not able to be accomplished in a lower risk manner.
Mapbox runs a global data protection program designed to operate in compliance with applicable global privacy laws, including: VCDPA (Virginia, USA), UCPA (Utah, USA), UK-GDPR (UK), TIPA (Tennessee, USA), TDPSA (Texas, USA),PIPEDA (Canada), MTCDPA (Montana, USA), LGPD (Brazil),IDPL (Iowa, USA), ICDPA(Indianna, USA), GDPR (Europe), CTDPA (Connecticut, USA), CCPA and its implementing regulations including CPRA (California, USA), CPA (Colorado, USA), and APPI (Japan), among many other important jurisdictions.
Mapbox’s privacy program is based on privacy by design, which includes monitoring for upcoming privacy laws and regulations to assess whether its practices may need to be adjusted to maintain compliance; product/service privacy reviews; data breach response processes; and operationalized technical and organizational measures designed to ensure the security of the personal data it receives including: security audits and SOC2 certification; anonymization & pseudonymization of personal data (where applicable); strict access control with logging; limited data retention periods.
Yes. Mapbox is SOC2 Type 2 certified with a summary SOC3 report available for customer review. In addition, Mapbox earned and maintains Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange (“TISAX”) and ISO 9001 certifications. Upon request and execution of an NDA, Mapbox may share a copy of its latest SOC2 report.
Mapbox welcomes any further questions you may have regarding its ongoing commitment to privacy and data security. Please contact Mapbox’s privacy office at privacy@mapbox.com.
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