N.J. high court endorses online privacy

Subject: N.J. high court endorses online privacy Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:24 pm

In what's being called the first ruling to support a reasonable expectation of privacy online, the New Jersey Supreme Court has decreed that Internet service providers cannot release users' personal information without a valid subpoena. The justices said the state's constitution provides more protection against unreasonable searches and seizures than the U.S. Constitution.

Here's the unanimous ruling (pdf) in State v. Shirley Reid.

"The reality is that people do expect a measure of privacy when they use the Internet," said Grayson Barber, a lawyer representing the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, among other groups that filed friend-of-the-court briefs (pdf) in the case.

The 7-0 decision upheld lower courts that restricted police from obtaining the identity of a Cape May County woman through Comcast. She was accused of changing her employer's access codes to a supplier's Web site after an argument with her boss.

Police obtained a subpoena from a local court and learned her identity by tracing her IP address, but higher courts said a grand jury was required and tossed out her 2005 indictment for theft by computer. The Cape May County prosecutor now says his office will seek a grand jury subpoena and a new indictment.

An Internet litigation lawyer said that today's ruling is "contrary to what is happening with rights of privacy at the federal level," but that it "seems to be consistent with a trend nationwide, but not a strong trend."

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/04/nj-high-court-e.html

N.J. high court endorses online privacy

N.J. high court endorses online privacy

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

AnCaps On Rights, Individualism & Lifestyles