The Supreme Court puts it mildly in its opening line: "The
Internet raises a host of new and challenging questions about
privacy."
One of those questions is whether an IP address can be
considered personal information. An internet protocol (IP) address
is the unique numeric identifier of a particular computer and, in a
wider sense, can be any node or point in the internet generally. In
the recent case of R. v. Spencer, 2014
SCC 43, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) considered whether there
is a reasonable expectation of privacy in ISP subscriber
information including IP address information.
In this case, police identified the IP address of a computer
that someone had been using to access child pornography.
Police approached the ISP and obtained the subscriber information
associated with that IP address. At this point, no warrant was
issued. This led them to the accused and a warrant was
issued for a search of his residence. The accused was charged and
convicted.
