Privacy

The US Supreme Court has ruled that there is not currently a right to privacy in regard to "subscriber information" and "banking information" as it relates to law enforcement and search warrants. If you'd like to read the cases on them, they are US v Perrine (1996) and US v Miller (1976), respectively; both are available through the College's Westlaw account via the library. This means that in theory, banks and ISPscan release your Internet subscriber and your bankinginformation to police on request.

In practice, while banks may release name and address information, they generally are slow to release much else. Similarly, ISPs generally won't release anything without a court order. These are generally in the form of subpoenas that have been submitted by a prosecutor and reviewed by a judge, and which do not require a showing of probable cause.

What are your thoughts on this? Should law enforcement and other government agencies be required to show a court order prior to getting your subscriber and bankinginformation even though this information is routinely viewed by third parties? If the police should get an order, do you think it should just be a subpoena, which only requires the police to state that they need the information for an investigation, or should the police be required to get a search warrant, which requires the police to demonstrate probable cause that a crime has been committed, and probable cause to believe that evidence of that crime will be found in the records sought?