Internet service providers can't give customer names, addresses and phone numbers to police without a search warrant, Canada's top court says in a decision released this morning.
Friday's decision concerned the case of Matthew David Spencer, of Saskatchewan, who was charged and convicted of possession of child pornography after a police officer saw illegal files being downloaded to his IP address — a series of numbers representing a person's internet identity.
The police officer went to Spencer's internet service provider (ISP), Shaw, and asked for the real identity of the customer attached to the IP address. The police officer did not have a search warrant, but was given the address of Spencer's sister, allowing police to track him down.
Spencer appealed his conviction, arguing that the search was unconstitutional and his rights were violated.
The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled there is no reasonable expectation of privacy for basic internet subscriber information, prompting Spencer to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The Supreme Court disagreed.
"In my view, in the totality of the circumstances of this case, there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in the subscriber information," Supreme Court Justice Thomas Cromwell wrote.
"The disclosure of this information will often amount to the identification of a user with intimate or sensitive activities being carried out online, usually on the understanding that these activities would be anonymous."
Although the Supreme Court set limits on when internet providers can disclose customer information, it dismissed Spencer's appeal.
It said police should have obtained a warrant before asking Shaw for the customer information. But it also said police acted reasonably and in good faith, so the administration of justice would be impaired if the evidence gathered by searching Spencer's home were thrown out of court.
The top court decision means Spencer would be subjected to a new trial, on a charge of making child pornography available to others.
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