In some jurisdictions, cops have been known to hang out at indoor gardening shops, taking down license plates of cars shopping there and then showing up at the buyers’ houses with warrants.
How does that shake out with regard to purchases online? Can the cops in my jurisdiction call up Amazon and say “has anyone in this jurisdiction purchased indoor gardening equipment?”? Or would they need a warrant for that information?
Further, does the USPS let authorities know about packages from indoor gardening suppliers being sent to certain addresses?
ETA: Let’s say there have been some murders in my area, and the bodies haven’t been found. Can the cops call up Amazon and say “Has anyone in this jurisdiction purchased lye, shovels, large bags, etc.?”?
One of the “rules” about indoor gardening is to never have items shipped to your home. That’s what friends are for. I have ordered a HPS light fixture, spare bulbs, nutrients, etc. After the order arrived, I dropped off the packages at a friend’s home (I assume he is growing tomatoes hydroponically) and get reimbursed in cash.
They can ask, but I don’t believe Amazon would be compelled to provide information unless they were presented with a search warrant.
Volunteering information would be against their interests; if their policy were to turn over sales records to any government official who simply asks nicely, any Amazon customers who do not enjoy the prospect of police attention would soon choose to stop being Amazon customers.
IANAL, I assume a real lawyer will pop in soon to confirm - but simply buying material that COULD be used for an illegal purpose is most likely not enough to rise to the level of suspicion to permit a warrant to be sworn out (reasonable suspicion? probable cause?). Therefore, Amazon does not have to provide the information, and the police could not use that information alone to get a warrant to search your house.
Amazon could provide the information voluntarily, but I can’t think of a quicker way to drive away customers than having them know their purchases are an open book for any curious government agency.
But I guess the answer to the OP is - Amazon is perfectly entitled to give the information to the police, you have no expectation of privacy there; you gave that information to Amazon. They are free to disclose it. There is no equivalent of lawyer-client or doctor-patient confidentiality.
I am not actually doubtful, in this age of anything goes in the war on drugs, but it does seem that a judge would have to be pretty terrible to sign off on a warrant with no more probable cause than the cop saw him buying grow lights.
Of course, in combination with something else - i.e. paid informant saying the guy was a seller, smell of weed during knock on door visit, etc.- that purchase might help get a warrant signed. However, I doubt they can get the information without a warrant unless they can read the labels boxes left on the doorstep during delivery.
Colorado has finally gotten its “Amazon Tax” law cleared thru appeals courts and SCotUS has denied the final appeal.
Under the law an Internet retailer either must collect the CO sales tax or report to CO the item and amount.
Large sites like Amazon will of course do the former. But smaller outfits might do the latter. If you ordered a hydro kit from Tokin’ Dave’s, this info might be directly sent to the CO state tax department.
I presume CO can subpoena information from Amazon to verify proper collection of taxes, but I don’t think they can just ask politely and hope to get it. Maybe.
Ref **md2000 **just above: The CO law means Amazon must report to the CO government about the purchases of CO residents. Not sure what out of state question you’re considering.
Ref the OP’s question: Here’ s some mostly-relevant discussion by an actual lawyer. The specific situation isn’t a purchase, but directly relates to questions of Amazon disclosing customer info to law enforcement. Amazon Echo Legal Documents - Associate's Mind
If I’m “Fred’s Cat Toys of Oregon” with no presence in Colorado, how would Colorado enforce its sale tax rules? Can Colorado sue a company in a different state for taxes?
(I guess techinically, does a purchase happen where the customer resides or where the business resides? Or does it depend on how it’s shipped?
Let’s be clear, it is a use tax not a sales tax since the latter is unconstitutional. Colorado depends on self-reporting of these purchases and the law requires the out-of-state company to report to the buyer the amount of the use tax they owe the state. It is as simple as adding a line to the invoice.
There are three parts to the law. First is the transactional notice to the buyer at the time of sale that you point out, but there is also an obligation for sellers to send an annual purchase summary to consumers who purchase more than $500 worth of goods stating how much they bought and reminding them of their use tax obligations. Finally, the seller must also send Colorado tax authorities an annual customer information report with the customers’ names, addresses and the total amounts spent.
It’s still not clear to me how Colorado will enforce these obligations on out-of-state retailers but I have a few theories.
I agree with the first part of this comment … I’m not required to give the police any business information unless there’s a warrant … but I always do … I run a lawful operation … if the customers don’t like it they can go elsewhere … I’m making way too much money to fool with that kind of horseshit …
Kinda wondering why you think Amazon would take such a risk.
There is a lot less protection than you might think with respect to your dealings with merchants, whether local or online. The main privacy protections at the federal level are the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects medical information; the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which protects personal information held by financial institutions, such as banks and brokerages; and, for weird historical reasons, the Video Privacy Protection Act, which protects video rental information. These protections are not necessarily ironclad. For example, financial institutions essentially can make any disclosures that are consistent with their privacy policies (although, in some cases, state law may give account holders additional protection). I work with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and am most familiar with its provisions.
None of these give any significant degree of protection against disclosure to law enforcement. For example, bank regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission do not need a warrant to examine bank and brokerage records, respectively. An unregulated entity like Amazon may require a subpoena before providing customer information, but if so, that’s between the police and Amazon; you as Amazon’s customer do not have a say as to whether a subpoena is required, nor will you normally be informed when one has been served on Amazon.
in other words he’s asking how to buy supplies to grow pot indoors aka hydroponically and doesn’t want amazon ect volunteering what he’s buying to anyone
like some places will say well he bought 50 of your widgets to company a and company a sends him a bunch of ads which could attract the attention of the 5o asking why the hell is he buying all of this in the middle of winter and busting him …