Supreme Court Of Canada Holds That Canadians Have A Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy In Relation To Their IP Address

• Published date: 27 March 2024
• Law Firm: McKercher LLP
• Author: Ms Katherine Melnychuk

In 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada held that a reasonable expectation of privacy attached to the subscriber information associated with an Internal Protocol (IP) address. Now, ten years later, the Court has held that a reasonable expectation of privacy extends to the IP address itself.

In R v Bykovets, 2024 SCC 6, the Supreme Court of Canada was tasked to determine whether the police's request for IP addresses from a third-party payment processing company was a 'search' under s. 8 of the Canada Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the 'Charter').

Police were investigating...