The Vermont Supreme Court ruled AOL did not violate a suspect's Fourth Amendment rights when it searched its stored communications to aid in a law enforcement investigation, Bloomberg Law reports. AOL, now operating as Oath Inc., alerted law enforcement to a user suspected of possessing child pornography after his account was searched using an algorithm designed to monitor suspicious activity. The Vermont Supreme Court determined the evidence was valid, as the company was acting within its terms of service, and, as Judge Marilyn Skoglund wrote in the decision, providers generally “do not act as agents of law enforcement by monitoring the content of transmissions for suspected child pornography” and other illicit activity.
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