18 U.S.
Code § 2702 - Voluntary disclosure of customer communications or records
(a) Prohibitions.— Except as provided in subsection (b) or (c)—
(1) 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
(2) a person or entity providing remote
computing service to the public shall not knowingly divulge to any person or
entity the contents of any communication which is carried or maintained on that
service—
(A) 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;
(B) 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
(3) 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.
(b) Exceptions for disclosure of
communications.— A provider described in subsection (a) may divulge the
contents of a communication—
(1) to an addressee or intended recipient
of such communication or an agent of such addressee or intended recipient;
(3) 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;
(4) to a person employed or authorized or
whose facilities are used to forward such communication to its destination;
(5) 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;
(6) to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, in connection with a report submitted thereto under section
2258A;
(7) to a law enforcement agency—
(A) if the contents—
(i) were inadvertently obtained by the
service provider; and
(ii) appear to pertain to the commission of
a crime; or
[(B) Repealed. Pub. L. 108–21, title V,
§ 508(b)(1)(A),Apr. 30, 2003, 117 Stat. 684]
(8) 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.
(c) Exceptions for Disclosure of
Customer Records.— A provider described in subsection (a) may divulge a
record or other information pertaining to a subscriber to or customer of such
service (not including the contents of communications covered by subsection
(a)(1) or (a)(2))—
(1) as otherwise authorized in section 2703;
(2) with the lawful consent of the customer
or subscriber;
(3) 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;
(4) 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;
(5) to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, in connection with a report submitted thereto under section
2258A; or
(6) to any person other than a governmental
entity.
(d) Reporting of Emergency Disclosures.—
On an annual basis, the Attorney General shall submit to the Committee on
the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the Committee on the
Judiciary of the Senate a report containing—
(1) the number of accounts from which the
Department of Justice has received voluntary disclosures under subsection
(b)(8); and
(2) a summary of the basis for disclosure
in those instances where—
(A) voluntary disclosures under subsection
(b)(8) were made to the Department of Justice; and
(B) the investigation pertaining to those
disclosures was closed without the filing of criminal charges.
