2A:156A-28. Disclosure of contents

22. Disclosure of contents.

a. (1) Except as provided in subsection b. of this section, 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) Except as provided in subsection b. of this section, 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 the service; and

(b) 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 such communication for the purpose of providing any services other than storage or computer processing.

b. 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 authorized or required by section 4 of P.L.1968, c.409 (C.2A:156A-4), section 17 of P.L.1968, c.409 (C.2A:156A-17), section 18 of P.L.1968, c.409 (C.2A:156A-18) or section 23 of P.L.1993, c.29 (C.2A:156A-29);

(3) with the lawful consent of the originator or an addressee or intended recipient of the communication, or the subscriber in the case of a remote computing service;

(4) to a person employed or authorized or whose facilities are used to forward the 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; or

(6) to a law enforcement agency, if the contents were inadvertently obtained by the provider and appear to pertain to the commission of a crime.

L.1993,c.29,s.22.