Reasonable Expectation of Privacy: Sharing Information with People You Only Think You Know

Determining whether a search is constitutionally unreasonable under section 8 of the Charter involves a consideration of whether, in the circumstances, there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.  It is that expectation that triggers the application of section 8.

Electronic communications in the modern world involve a degree of anonymity and easily permit either the sender or recipient of a message to give misleading or false information.

When an individual shares information across electronic social media with a person or entity he does not know, and therefore with whom he is not in a position to trust, he risks the disclosure of that information.  This militates against the individual possessing a reasonable privacy expectation.

R. v. Mills, 2017 NLCA 12, at para. 23.

[In which the appellant communicated via social media with a police officer posing as a fourteen-year-old girl.  The Court of Appeal for Newfoundland and Labrador concluded that the appellant did not possess a reasonable expectation of privacy in his communications with the police persona.  Section 8 of the Charter was not engaged].



Stuart O’Connell, O’Connell Law Group, www.leadersinlaw.ca

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