Legal Resources
Trust and Safety
Trust and Safety FAQs
Welcome to the Trust and Safety Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page. For your convenience, Trust and Safety FAQs are separated into different sections to address the unique needs of Customers, Law Enforcement Agencies, and Third-Party Requestors, as well as a section for General FAQs.
What are the fees, if any, for Trust & Safety assistance?
Brightspeed charges fees for the collection of data simply to cover the cost of complying with court orders, subpoenas or other legal demands. Most of the fees charged do not compensate Brightspeed for the total cost of compliance. Applicable fees may apply.
What are the Trust & Safety team's hours of operation?
Brightspeed's Trust & Safety team's normal hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm Eastern time, excluding holidays. We can be reached at 704.314.2390 or via email at fraud@brightspeed.com.
After hours support is only available for Exigent Circumstances to address an imminent situation that is likely to cause immediate physical harm to a person, destruction of evidence, or the escape of a felony criminal suspect. Exigent Circumstance requests may only be submitted by an authorized employee of a U.S. law enforcement agency and will be evaluated for imminency after the employee’s identity and the request’s validity has been verified with the agency. Demand letters should be emailed to subpoena@brightspeed.com or faxed to 833-356-2345.
Can Brightspeed offer legal advice?
No, Brightspeed can neither provide more information about a subpoena itself nor provide legal advice to you regarding any objections or questions you may have. Please consult with an attorney for legal assistance.
How can I find out about the status of a subpoena?
To determine the status of a subpoena, please call 704-314-2390 and follow the menu options or email us at: subpoena@brightspeed.com.
Please be prepared to include your name, a call back number, and a Brightspeed case number if available. We will respond within 1 business day.
What is a Copyright subpoena?
A copyright owner may serve a subpoena on a service provider, like Brightspeed, requesting the identity of a customer alleged to be infringing on the owner's copyright by, for example, illegally downloading a movie to the customer's computer. The subpoena is issued by the clerk of any United States District Court upon a request by the copyright owner, or one authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.
What is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA?
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which is also known as the DMCA, was enacted by Congress in 1998 to help service providers (like Brightspeed) and copyright owners deal with some of the legal challenges created by digital media on the Internet. Among other things, the DMCA established guidelines and processes for copyright owners to send notices of alleged copyright violations to service providers. The notice identifies a particular copyright offense that is alleged to have occurred, the date and time of the activity, and the internet protocol (IP) address of the network or system on which the activity occurred. Access the U.S. Copyright Office's summary of the DMCA.
What is the difference between a DMCA notice and notification of a copyright subpoena?
A DMCA notice is provided for informational purposes only when Brightspeed is advised under the DMCA customers may have violated established guidelines. Under a DMCA notice none of your personal information will be released to a third party.
When you receive a notification of a subpoena from Brightspeed, it means that your subscriber information has been requested in a civil lawsuit and that Brightspeed is required to release that information if you do not file an objection with the court.
Does Brightspeed track internet content?
Brightspeed uses information generated on our networks to manage, plan, and develop networks, and to ensure reliability and efficiency of those networks. For example, we monitor data to check for viruses, control spam, prevent attacks that might disable our services, ensure traffic does not violate our subscriber agreements or our acceptable use policies, and guard against other inappropriate or illegal activity. This may involve looking at the characteristics of our network traffic, such as traffic volumes, beginning and ending points of transmissions, and the types of applications being used to send traffic across our network.
In limited circumstances, we need to look into the content of the data (such as the specific websites being visited, files being transmitted, or applications being used) for the purposes described above. We may also look into the content of the data when Brightspeed is concerned about fraud or harassment, to repair a detected problem, or when we are providing the content of broadband traffic to Law Enforcement when required and authorized by law.
Most of the specific information we obtain that is attributable to a user is kept only for a matter of hours or days. We may retain data for longer if, for example, we see patterns in the traffic that give us concerns about potential harm to our network, or if we are doing a specific study on the impact of certain applications used on our networks. We also may retain logs of the total amount of data transmitted, and the date, time, and duration of access to the Internet through our services by a user, including the user's IP address at the time.
For more information, visit Brightspeed’s Privacy Notice.
If I know the IP Address, how do I find the Internet Service Provider?
You can access the American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN) website to identify the Internet Service Provider of an IP address. Use the “Search WHOISRWS” function located on the top of ARIN's home page.
ARIN is not maintained by Brightspeed. Brightspeed cannot ensure the accuracy of the results provided by ARIN.
How do I find the Service Provider for a telephone number?
Telcodata is a website that will locate the name of the Telecommunication Service Provider when provided with an area code and prefix. This site will also break down the area code and prefix on "pooled numbers" which are numbers split between several different service providers. For example, 720-287 is pooled between 4 different service providers. Telcodata will show which Service Provider handles each pooled set of numbers.
Telcodata is not maintained by Brightspeed. Brightspeed cannot ensure the accuracy of the results provided by Telcodata.
Who do I call if I received a call from a missing person?
Always contact your local Law Enforcement Agency and they will contact Brightspeed for assistance. In addition to contacting Law Enforcement, you may consider reviewing the FAQ on our Call Trace feature.
How can I contact the Trust & Safety team if I still have questions?
If you have a question, please call 704-314-2390, and listen to the options presented. You will have to leave a message with your name, contact number, and reason for calling. Also include as much detailed information as possible, such as a Brightspeed case number or telephone number of interest, so we may quickly address your concerns. You may also email us at: fraud@brightspeed.com. A team member will respond within 1 business day.
Where do I report a damage incident related to Brightspeed services?
UNIcall, 833-692-7773 Option 4 and then Option 2, is the risk incident notification network for Brightspeed. UNIcall may be used by customers in the following circumstances: