N.D.Cal.: Yahoo!’s TOS results in no REP in CP transmitted through it

The Terms of Service of Yahoo! email provide defendant no reasonable expectation of privacy in child pornography that was transmitted by its service. In addition, Yahoo!’s search was a private search. United States v. Wolfenbarger, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 148822 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 31, 2019):

Moreover, Defendant cannot reasonably contend that Defendant had no expectation that after searching Defendant’s account and finding child pornography, Yahoo would then report Defendant’s conduct to NCMEC and that NCMEC would share the CyberTip with the FBI. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A, Yahoo is required to report “apparent” and “imminent” violations of the child pornography statutes to NCMEC. 18 U.S.C. § 2258A(a). Yahoo’s failure to do so is punishable by a fine of up to $300,000. Id. at § 2258A(e). In turn, NCMEC is required to make CyberTips available to law enforcement. Id. at § 2258(c). Thus, no reasonable person would believe that after Yahoo discovered child pornography images in an email account, Yahoo would not share the images with NCMEC, which would then share them with law enforcement.

Accordingly, Defendant has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the eight child pornography images found in his Yahoo email account. Regardless, even if Defendant did have a reasonable expectation of privacy in those images, Defendant has not shown that the search violated the Fourth Amendment, as the Court next discusses. See Wilson, 2017 WL 2733879, at *8 (finding that the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy, but then addressing whether the search violated the Fourth Amendment even if the defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy).

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