NJ Supreme Court Defends Online Privacy

A recent ruling ensures that subscriber ISP records cannot be accessed without a proper grand jury subpoena.

Residents of New Jersey may now have among the best legal protection of their online privacy in the United States after a recent ruling of the state’s Supreme Court. In State of New Jersey v. Shirley Reid, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have the same duty to protect subscriber privacy records as banks or phone companies, and cannot turn over records without a proper subpoena.

“Because current technology renders the user’s identity anonymous to all except the ISP, users have reason to expect that their actions are confidential when they surf the Web from the privacy of their homes,” the Court’s decision read. “Therefore, the Court holds that Article I, Paragraph 7, of the New Jersey Constitution protects an individual’s privacy interest in the subscriber information that he or she provides to an ISP.”

The case in question concerned Shirley Reid, an employee at Jersey Diesel who allegedly hacked the company’s computer system from her home. In the course of investigating the case, law enforcement was granted a subpoena from a municipal court and retrieved Reid’s IP from Comcast, her service provider. In its review of the case, the New Jersey Supreme Court found that the subpoena from the lower court was faulty for a number of reasons, and reaffirmed citizens’ rights to “informational privacy,” including name, address, or social security number, and generated information, such as financial or credit card records, medical records, and phone logs.

While law enforcement will still be able to track down perpetrators of malicious online activity, ISPs will now be legally compelled not to yield to anything but a grand jury subpoena.