In a groundbreaking decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled that law enforcement agencies must obtain a wiretap order to monitor a user’s Facebook account, even in the absence of evidence of criminal activity.
The court’s ruling came on Thursday, favoring Facebook’s argument that a warrant alone is insufficient for tracking a user’s social media activities.
The case arose when New Jersey law enforcement authorities sought to compel Facebook to provide the content of two users’ accounts every 15 minutes over a span of 30 days using just a warrant.
The state contended that the warrant was justified since the data was already stored on Facebook’s servers and not a real-time stream of the user’s actions.
Wiretap order needed for electronic communications
However, the court dismissed the state’s argument, deeming it obsolete and emphasizing that it would render New Jersey’s wiretap laws meaningless.
The ruling highlighted that law enforcement should apply for a wiretap order to access future electronic communications from Facebook users’ accounts, demonstrating a higher legal standard and requiring stronger justification than a warrant.
