April 22, 2008

NJ Supreme Court Rules That Subscribers Have Privacy Right In Their Internet Data

The Supreme Court of New Jersey became the first court in the nation yesterday to rule that people have an expectation of privacy when they are online, and law enforcement officials need a grand jury warrant to have access to their private information. In state proceedings, the ruling will take precedence over what attorneys describe as weaker U.S. Supreme Court decisions that hold there is no right to privacy on the internet. "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.

N.J. justices call e-privacy surfers' right, Newark Star-Ledger, April 22, 2008.