E.D.Va.: Subpoena for times connected to IP address is not for transactional information and thus is valid

A subpoena is sufficient for IP information that only showed when connected, but not where connected (transactional information). In re United States for Non Disclosure Ord. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2705B Relating to Grand Jury Subpoena, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68289 (E.D. Va. Apr. 9, 2025):

Basic Subscriber Information does not include a customer’s transactional data, such as addresses of websites visited by the customer and email addresses of other individuals with whom the account holder has corresponded.

. . .

Based on the above, a request for session IP addresses and associated port numbers would seem to produce the dates and times a user connected to a network and the applications or services on the internet or network involved in the transmission. This is distinct from a request for transactional information, such as the addresses of websites visited by the customer and email addresses of other individuals with whom the account holder has corresponded.

A request for session IP addresses and associated port numbers will not disclose transactional information, but it is like a request for “telephone connection, or records of session times and durations” and “telephone or instrument numbers or other subscriber number or identity, including any temporarily assigned network addresses,” both of which are expressly authorized by 18 U.S.C. § 2703(c)(2). The Court finds therefore that the government’s request for “session IP addresses and associated port numbers” constitutes non-transactional Basic Subscriber Information that may be obtained by the government with a subpoena.