US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

     626A.27 Disclosure of contents. 

    Subdivision 1.    Prohibitions.  Except as provided in 
 subdivision 2: 

    (1) a person or entity providing an electronic 
 communication service to the public must not knowingly divulge 
 to a 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 must not knowingly divulge to a person or entity 
 the contents of any communication that is carried or maintained 
 on that service: 

    (i) 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 the service; and 

    (ii) solely for the purpose of providing storage or 
 computer processing services to the subscriber or customer, if 
 the provider is not authorized to access the contents of any 
 communications for purposes of providing any services other than 
 storage or computer processing. 

    Subd. 2.    Exceptions.  A person or entity may divulge 
 the contents of a communication: 

    (1) to an addressee or intended recipient of the 
 communication or an agent of the addressee or intended 
 recipient; 

    (2) as otherwise authorized in section 626A.02, subdivision 
 2, paragraph (a); 626A.05; or section 626A.28; 

    (3) with the lawful consent of the originator or an 
 addressee or intended recipient of the 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 a 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; or 

    (6) to a law enforcement agency, if the contents: 

    (i) were inadvertently obtained by the service provider; 
 and 

    (ii) appear to pertain to the commission of a crime. 

    HIST: 1988 c 577 s 48,62; 1989 c 336 art 2 s 8 

Copyright 2005 by the Office of Revisor of Statutes, State of Minnesota.