The article raises the issue of data acquisition from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by the Polish law enforcement, both through direct contact with the service provider, using the instruments of international legal assistance, and investigative operations. The authors refers both to the internal regulations of service providers, Polish, EU and foreign legislation. Scope of the article has been narrowed down to the acquisition of data collected in the European Union. The authors describe the legal bases for processing personal data by service providers, conducting OSINT activities in social media by police officers, the process of obtaining data from social media based on the terms of service providers, as well as Polish, EU and Irish laws.
The authors point out the necessity of conducting further research on the use of social media by law enforcement agencies, to publish by the Police General Commandant guidelines on the use of social media and to conduct appropriate training for officers. Moreover, the article draws attention to the procedurally complex process of obtaining data from service providers with use of international legal assistance instruments. Therefore, the authors propose that Polish government should consider concluding appropriate bilateral agreements, on the basis of already available legal solutions indicated in the article, with countries where service providers are established.