Federal · Title 18 — Crimes and Criminal Procedure

18 U.S.C. § 2702: Voluntary disclosure of customer communications or records

Civil

What this law says, in plain English

Electronic communication service providers are prohibited from disclosing customer communications or records to unauthorized parties, with specified exceptions for authorized recipients, emergencies, law enforcement, and other lawful purposes.

Read the full statutory text
a person or entity providing an electronic communication service to the public shall not knowingly divulge to any person or entity the contents of a communication while in electronic storage by that service; and on behalf of, and received by means of electronic transmission from (or created by means of computer processing of communications received by means of electronic transmission from), a subscriber or customer of such service; solely for the purpose of providing storage or computer processing services to such subscriber or customer, if the provider is not authorized to access the contents of any such communications for purposes of providing any services other than storage or computer processing; and a provider of remote computing service or electronic communication service to the public shall not knowingly divulge a record or other information pertaining to a subscriber to or customer of such service (not including the contents of communications covered by paragraph (1) or (2)) to any governmental entity. to an addressee or intended recipient of such communication or an agent of such addressee or intended recipient; as otherwise authorized in section 2517, 2511(2)(a), or 2703 of this title; with the lawful consent of the originator or an addressee or intended recipient of such communication, or the subscriber in the case of remote computing service; to a person employed or authorized or whose facilities are used to forward such communication to its destination; as may be necessarily incident to the rendition of the service or to the protection of the rights or property of the provider of that service; to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in connection with a report submitted thereto under section 2258A; were inadvertently obtained by the service provider; and appear to pertain to the commission of a crime; or Repealed. Pub. L. 108–21, title V, § 508(b)(1)(A) , Apr. 30, 2003 , 117 Stat. 684 ] to a governmental entity, if the provider, in good faith, believes that an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure without delay of communications relating to the emergency; or to a foreign government pursuant to an order from a foreign government that is subject to an executive agreement that the Attorney General has determined and certified to Congress satisfies section 2523. as otherwise authorized in section 2703; with the lawful consent of the customer or subscriber; as may be necessarily incident to the rendition of the service or to the protection of the rights or property of the provider of that service; to a governmental entity, if the provider, in good faith, believes that an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure without delay of information relating to the emergency; to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in connection with a report submitted thereto under section 2258A; to any person other than a governmental entity; or to a foreign government pursuant to an order from a foreign government that is subject to an executive agreement that the Attorney General has determined and certified to Congress satisfies section 2523. the number of accounts from which the Department of Justice has received voluntary disclosures under subsection (b)(8); voluntary disclosures under subsection (b)(8) were made to the Department of Justice; and the investigation pertaining to those disclosures was closed without the filing of criminal charges; and the number of accounts from which the Department of Justice has received voluntary disclosures under subsection (c)(4).

Verify at the official source: Federal legislative text

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This page is legal information, not legal advice. Code text is sourced from official publications and may lag amendments — always confirm at the official source linked above. Plain-English summaries and relationship data are AI-derived and reviewed on an ongoing basis; verify with a licensed attorney before acting.