Supreme Court to Consider Whether Improper Data Access Violates Computer Crime Law

April 20, 2020

The Supreme Court will decide whether a person who is authorized to access data for some purposes violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act if they access the information for other purposes. The case, Van Buren v. United States, concerns a police officer who accessed a law enforcement database to sell the information to a third party. EPIC recently urged the Supreme Court to consider whether another provision of the CFAA prohibits third parties from scraping user data when an internet company bans the practice. EPIC staff raised concerns about the civil liberties implications of the law when Congress passed the first computer crime statute in 1984.

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