Edvard Pettersson reports:
Meta and Snap, insofar as they are in the business of mining and monetizing users’ data, can’t hide behind the Stored Communications Act to avoid turning over posts and communications to the defendant in a murder case.
A San Diego-based appellate court rejected the arguments by the two social media companies on Tuesday and found their business models distinguish them from electronic communications services and remote computing services as defined under the 1986 federal law protecting the privacy of people’s emails and the like.
“We recognize the import of this decision and do not take lightly the policy arguments presented by Snap and Meta,” Administrative Presiding Justice Judith McConnell said in the unanimous decision. “However, we conclude that the plain language of the SCA provisions at issue and the legislative history behind them establish that the disclosure limitations contained in the Act do not apply to the material at issue here.”
Read more at Courthouse News.