The police call us to ask who is behind an IP address 📞

The other way around, sometimes the police call us.

When there is a dangerous post on social media, such as a post hinting at suicide, the police first ask the social media company, “who is the person who made this post?”

When the social media company answers, “this post is from this hour and minute, from this IP address”, then the call comes to us, the telecom carrier that manages that IP address.

“The customer on this IP address is on your network, right? Please tell us the contract holder’s information.”

The first time the phone rang like that, I was surprised.

Of course I am not in a position to say “yes, go ahead”, so we go through a fixed approval process, and then we judge whether to disclose it.

Getting a call from the police is another one of the things that surprised me once I started working.