Courts have started to address the tricky — but important — question of whether IP addresses are personal information in which users have a right to privacy — statutory or otherwise. 

Most recently, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that “Internet subscribers do not have an expectation of privacy in their subscriber information as they already have conveyed such information to their Internet Service Providers.”  (MediaPost provided good coverage of the decisions.) The district court declined to quash a subpoena that had been issued to an ISP seeking subscriber information. 

But just two days earlier, Switzerland’s highest court had held that IP addresses are personal data protected by under Switzerland’s data privacy laws.  It found that the privacy rights of ISP subscribers outweigh the intellectual property interests of copyright holders.  The New Jersey Supreme Court has also held that subscribers have a privacy interest in their IP addresses.  Invoking the New Jersey Constitution’s protections against unreasonable search and seizure, the court required a lawful subpoena to access subscriber information provided to an individual’s Internet service provider.  The court noted that its decision was dependent on existing technology and practices.

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Photo of Libbie Canter Libbie Canter

Libbie Canter represents a wide variety of multinational companies on privacy, cyber security, and technology transaction issues, including helping clients with their most complex privacy challenges and the development of governance frameworks and processes to comply with global privacy laws. She routinely supports…

Libbie Canter represents a wide variety of multinational companies on privacy, cyber security, and technology transaction issues, including helping clients with their most complex privacy challenges and the development of governance frameworks and processes to comply with global privacy laws. She routinely supports clients on their efforts to launch new products and services involving emerging technologies, and she has assisted dozens of clients with their efforts to prepare for and comply with federal and state privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act and California Privacy Rights Act.

Libbie represents clients across industries, but she also has deep expertise in advising clients in highly-regulated sectors, including financial services and digital health companies. She counsels these companies — and their technology and advertising partners — on how to address legacy regulatory issues and the cutting edge issues that have emerged with industry innovations and data collaborations.