The Supreme Court of Canada recently decided an appeal in R. v. Bykovets[1] from the Court of Appeal of Alberta, on a 5-4 split judgment with the majority stating that Section 8 of the Charter protects the Internet Protocol from unreasonable search. This would require the police authorities to obtain prior judicial authorization before acquiring a person's IP address. The Supreme Court decided that a person's IP address attracted a reasonable expectation of privacy regardless of it is an external or internal IP. The majority stated that IP addresses are not a random collection of numbers but can provide personal information like location and online activity, as third-party providers have a profile on these IP addresses and is the first digital breadcrumb[2].
Facts
Andrei Bykovets/Appellant had been convicted of 14 offences for using unauthorized credit card data to buy gift cards online, using those gift cards to make purchases in store, and possessing material related to credit card fraud[3]. Calgary Police Service investigated fraudulent online purchases from a liquor store, identifying two IP addresses managed by Moneris. Police contacted Moneris to obtain the IP addresses used for the transactions, and Moneris voluntarily identified two. They obtained a production order for each IP address as required by R v. Spencer[4], one registered to the appellant and the other to his father. Police used this information to execute search warrants, arrest the appellant, and confirm his convictions[5].
Andrei Bykovets stated that the request of the IP address from Moneris was a contravention of his rights under Section 8 of the Charter.
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