The following are exempt from the provisions of this chapter:

Terms Used In Arizona Laws 13-3012

  • Child monitoring device: means a device that is capable of transmitting an audio or audiovisual signal and that is installed or used in a residence for child supervision or safety monitoring by any parent, guardian or other responsible person in the person's own residence. See Arizona Laws 13-3001
  • Communication service provider: means any person who is engaged in providing a service that allows its users to send or receive oral, wire or electronic communications or computer services. See Arizona Laws 13-3001
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Crime: means a misdemeanor or a felony. See Arizona Laws 13-105
  • Electronic communication: means any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data or intelligence of any nature that is transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photooptical system but that does not include any of the following:

    (a) Any wire or oral communication. See Arizona Laws 13-3001

  • Electronic communication system: means any communication or computer facilities or related electronic equipment for the transmission, processing or electronic storage of electronic communications. See Arizona Laws 13-3001
  • Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
  • Government: means the state, any political subdivision of the state or any department, agency, board, commission, institution or governmental instrumentality of or within the state or political subdivision. See Arizona Laws 13-105
  • including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • Intercept: means the aural or other acquisition of the contents of any wire, electronic or oral communication through the use of any electronic, mechanical or other device. See Arizona Laws 13-3001
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Oral communication: means a spoken communication that is uttered by a person who exhibits an expectation that the communication is not subject to interception under circumstances justifying the expectation but does not include any electronic communication. See Arizona Laws 13-3001
  • Pen register: means a device or process that records or decodes electronic or other impulses that identify the numbers dialed or otherwise transmitted on the telephone line or communication facility to which the device is attached or the dialing, routing, addressing or signaling information that is transmitted by an instrument or facility from which a wire or electronic communication is transmitted but does not include the contents of any communication, except when used in connection with a court order issued pursuant to section 13-3010 or 13-3012. See Arizona Laws 13-3001
  • Person: means any individual, enterprise, public or private corporation, unincorporated association, partnership, firm, society, governmental authority or entity, including the subscriber to the communication service involved, and any law enforcement officer. See Arizona Laws 13-3001
  • Property: means anything of value, tangible or intangible. See Arizona Laws 13-105
  • Readily accessible to the general public: means a radio communication that is not:

    (a) Scrambled or encrypted. See Arizona Laws 13-3001

  • Remote computing service: means providing to the public any computer storage or processing services by means of an electronic communication system. See Arizona Laws 13-3001
  • Serious physical injury: includes physical injury that creates a reasonable risk of death, or that causes serious and permanent disfigurement, serious impairment of health or loss or protracted impairment of the function of any bodily organ or limb. See Arizona Laws 13-105
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
  • Trap and trace device: means a device or process that captures the incoming electronic or other impulses that identify the originating number of an instrument or device from which a wire or electronic communication was transmitted or the dialing, routing, addressing and signaling information that is reasonably likely to identify the source of a wire or electronic communication but does not include the content of any communication, except when used in connection with a court order issued pursuant to section 13-3010 or 13-3012. See Arizona Laws 13-3001
  • Unlawful: means contrary to law or, where the context so requires, not allowed by law. See Arizona Laws 13-105

1. The interception of wire, electronic or oral communications, the installation and operation of a pen register or trap and trace device, the providing of information, facilities or technical assistance to an investigative or law enforcement officer pursuant to a subpoena or an ex parte order granted pursuant to sections 13-3010, 13-3015, 13-3016, 13-3017 and 13-3018 or an emergency interception made in good faith pursuant to section 13-3015, including any of the foregoing acts by a communication service provider or its officers, agents or employees.

2. The normal use of services, equipment and facilities that are provided by a communication service provider pursuant to tariffs that are on file with the Arizona corporation commission or the federal communications commission and the normal functions of any operator of a switchboard.

3. Any officer, agent or employee of a communication service provider who performs acts that are otherwise prohibited by this article in providing, constructing, maintaining, repairing, operating or using the provider’s services, equipment or facilities, protecting the provider’s service, equipment and facilities from illegal use in violation of tariffs that are on file with the Arizona corporation commission or the federal communications commission and protecting the provider from the commission of fraud against it.

4. Providing requested information or any other response to a subpoena or other order that is issued by a court of competent jurisdiction or on demand of any other lawful authority.

5. The interception of wire or electronic communications or the use of a pen register or trap and trace device by a communication service provider or by a person providing technical assistance at the request of the communication service provider if the interception or use either:

(a) Relates to the operation, maintenance and testing of that service, the protection of the rights or property of the provider or the protection of users of that service from fraudulent, abusive or unlawful use of that service.

(b) Records the fact that a wire or electronic communication was initiated or completed in order to protect the provider, another provider furnishing service toward the completion of the communication or a user of that service from fraudulent, unlawful or abusive use of that service.

6. The interception of any radio communication that is transmitted:

(a) By any station for the use of the general public or if the transmission relates to ships, aircraft, vehicles or persons in distress.

(b) By any government, law enforcement, civil defense, private land mobile or public safety communication system, including police and fire systems, and that is readily accessible to the general public.

(c) By any station that operates on an authorized frequency within the bands that are allocated to the amateur, citizens band or general mobile radio services.

(d) By any marine or aeronautical communications system.

(e) Through a system using frequencies that are monitored by persons who are engaged in the provision or the use of the system or by other persons who use the same frequency if the communication is not scrambled or encrypted.

7. The interception of wire or electronic communication if the transmission is causing harmful interference to any lawfully operating station or consumer electronic equipment, to the extent necessary to identify the source of the interference.

8. The use of a pen register or trap and trace device by a communication service provider for billing or recording as an incident to billing for communication services, or for cost accounting or other like purposes in the ordinary course of business.

9. The interception of any wire, electronic or oral communication by any person, if the interception is effected with the consent of a party to the communication or a person who is present during the communication, or the installation of a pen register or trap and trace device with the consent of a user or subscriber to the service.

10. Divulging the contents of a wire or electronic communication and any related records or information to a law enforcement agency by a remote computing service or communication service provider, officer or employee if either:

(a) The contents, records or information were lawfully or inadvertently obtained by the service provider and appear to pertain to the commission of a crime.

(b) The provider reasonably believes that an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person justifies the disclosure of the contents, records or information without delay.

11. Divulging records or other information that pertains to a customer or subscriber by a remote computing service or communication service provider, other than the contents of a communication, either:

(a) As authorized by section 13-3016.

(b) With the customer’s or subscriber’s consent.

(c) As may be necessary incident to the rendition of the service or for the protection of the rights or property of the provider of that service.

(d) To any person other than a governmental agency.

12. The interception or access of an electronic communication that is made through an electronic communication system and that is configured so that the electronic communication is readily accessible to the general public.

13. For other users of the same frequency to intercept a radio communication that is made through a system that uses frequencies that are monitored by individuals who provide or use the system, if the communication is not scrambled or encrypted.

14. The interception of oral communications by means of a child monitoring device.