Supreme Court rules on police access to text messages

It’s a decision that will have bearing on the billions of private text messages sent each year in Canada.

The case before the Supreme Court is one of several involving privacy concerns in the age of electronic communication.

Telus has been in a battle with the federal government, saying police need wiretap authorization to seize private texts from a customer’s phone. In a 5-2 decision, the court has sided with the wireless carrier, ruling that police need wiretap authority, and not just a search warrant, to look at text messages during investigations.

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This all stems from a case in Owen Sound where a court granted police a warrant ordering Telus to turn over texts from two of its customers. The warrant forced the company to email the police a copy of the customers’ texts every day for two weeks without the owner’s knowledge.

Today’s ruling has now quashed the general warrant forcing Telus to turn over all texts. The government had argued applications for wiretaps would clog the courts.