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New Jersey Appeals Court Strengthens Privacy Rights of Internet Users
A state appeals court in New Jersey has held that Internet users who choose to be anonymous online can expect that the personal information they give their Internet service providers will be kept private.
The decision arose from a case in which an employee was accused of breaking into her employer’s computer system. Police investigators obtained a subpoena from a municipal court administrator (who did not have the power to grant such a subpoena), and used the subpoena to obtain information from an ISP that linked the accused employee with an anonymous online identity.
The appeals court held that by using an anonymous web address and screen name, the employee clearly intended to keep her identity private and thereby “manifested a reasonable expectation of privacy in her true identity” and had a “legitimate and substantial interest in anonymity”. The information on file with the ISP was therefore protected by the concept of “informational privacy”.
This decision will make it more difficult to obtain personal information on computer users from ISPs (at least in New Jersey), but authorities were quick to point out that it will not prohibit them from investigating computer crimes such as child pornography. Computerized personal information may still be obtained by investigators with an appropriate warrant or subpoena.
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