Section 8 guarantees the right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure. It protects people, not places: the question is whether a person had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the subject matter of the search.
A lawful search normally requires prior authorisation — a warrant from a neutral arbiter on reasonable and probable grounds. The privacy interest is territorial, personal, and informational, and the courts have steadily extended it to digital records such as computers, cell phones, and internet subscriber data.
Interpreting section 8 of the Charter, the Court held that a search is unreasonable unless authorised in advance by a neutral arbiter on reasonable and probable grounds. It framed the interest section 8 protects as a person's reasonable expectation of privacy.
The Court held that internet users have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the subscriber information linking their identity to their online activity, so police generally need judicial authorisation to obtain it from an internet service provider.