NJ Court Sides With Facebook; Police Must Get Wiretap Order For Access

NEW JERSEY — The New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously sided with Facebook in a court case stemming from police officials’ requests to access suspects’ accounts, records show.

During a drug investigation, New Jersey State Police and Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office officials filed warrants asking Facebook to provide them with the contents of two accounts every 15 minutes, for a period of 30 days. The account owners were suspected of selling drugs using Facebook, records show.

To gain access to someone’s private communications in real time, prosecutors must apply for a wiretap order, which requires more proof than just probable cause. State officials argued that the 15-minute delay exempted them from having to get a wiretap order for the accounts, since it was not live information. State Police and the Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office had filed for warrants, not wiretap orders, when gathering evidence against the two men in March of 2021.

Prosecutors sought the names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses associated with the accounts, as well as the contents of “stored electronic communications” in their communications data warrants.

Facebook argued that giving officials access to these accounts moving forward would not fall under the purview of a normal search warrant.

The state high court agreed.

“Nowhere else in the nation has law enforcement sought prospective communications from Facebook users’ accounts without presenting a wiretap order,” wrote Chief Justice Stuart Rabner in the decision Thursday.

“The nearly contemporaneous acquisition of electronic communications here is the functional equivalent of wiretap surveillance and is therefore entitled to greater constitutional protection,” Rabner continued. “New Jersey’s wiretap act applies in this case to safeguard individual privacy rights under the relevant statutes and the State Constitution.”

The NJ Attorney General's Office, who argued the case on behalf of the state, told Patch it had no comment on the decision.

The state supreme court's decision was first reported by NJ Advance Media.