Police now need warrant to get a person’s IP address, Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court of Canada made a key privacy ruling Friday that will now require police to first obtain a warrant or court order to obtain the numbers making up a person or organization’s IP address. 

The top court was asked to consider whether an IP address alone, without any of the personal information attached to it, was protected by an expectation of privacy under the Charter.

In a five-four split decision, the court said a reasonable expectation of privacy is attached to the numbers making up a person’s IP address, and just getting those numbers alone constitutes a search. 

Writing for the majority, Justice Andromache Karakatsanis wrote that an IP address is “the crucial link between an internet user and their online activity.” 

“Thus, the subject matter of this search was the information these IP addresses could reveal about specific internet users including, ultimately, their identity.”

Writing for the four dissenting judges, Justice Suzanne Côté disagreed with that central point, saying there should be no expectation of privacy around an IP address alone.

More to come.