• April 22, 2008

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Monday that an Internet service provider can't disclose the identities of consumers without a grand jury subpoena.

"We now hold that citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy ... in the subscriber information they provide to internet service providers--just as New Jersey citizens have a privacy interest in their bank records stored by banks and telephone billing records kept by phone companies," the court stated in its unanimous 32-page decision.

The case appears to mark the first time a state court has held that Web users have an enforceable expectation of privacy when they are online.

--Wendy Davis