In an important decision that has seemingly flown under the radar, late last month the Supreme Court of New Jersey decidedwhich puts much-needed guardrails on police conduct in the state when it comes to law enforcement’s access to digital communications. Up until this decision, it was permissible for New Jersey police to obtain a Facebook user’s private messages in near real time with a mere probable-cause warrant.
Much like many abusive law enforcement surveillance tactics, the police in this case attempted to exploit a pre-internet law that currently governs most online data. The Stored Communications Act, passed in 1986, authorizes government entities to mandate the disclosure of communications in “electronic storage” pursuant to a warrant or subpoena, depending on the length of time communications are in storage.