Case Update: NJ Supreme Court upholds decision on your internet privacy!
Apr 22nd, 2008 | By Michael L. Saile, Jr., Esq. | Category: Blogs, Criminal & TrafficYesterday, the NJ Supreme Court upheld the NJ Appellate Division’s decision holding your screen name or internet addresses private. We reported to you in an earlier blog entry that a New Jersey police officer used an invalid NJ Municipal Court subpoena to obtain information from Comcast regarding a criminal suspect.
The Appellate Division said this type of request is illegal without a search warrant, a grand jury subpoena, or an order to produce from the Superior Court based upon a showing of probable cause. We also told you that federal law permits this type of invasion.
Yesterday, in State v. Reid, the NJ Supreme Court said that the NJ Constitution demands that citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their subscriber information provided to internet service providers.
The Supremes did say that a law enforcement officer can obtain this information by serving a grand jury subpoena without notice to the individual subscriber.
In this case, the police can still get this information since it is probably still in Comcast’s records. I believe this was a wise decision to protect the citizens of New Jersey!
You can view State v. Reid here: State v. Reid.pdf
