Md. Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 10-4A-03
This is the official text of Md. Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 10-4A-03, part of Maryland’s Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings — governs court structure and civil procedure.
Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.
§10–4A–03.
Official statutory text
(a) (1) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a person or entity providing an electronic communication service to the public may not knowingly divulge to any other person or entity the contents of a communication while the communication is in electronic storage by that service.
(2) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a person or entity providing remote computing service to the public may not knowingly divulge to any other person or entity the contents of any communication which is carried or maintained on that service:
(i) On behalf of, and received by means of electronic transmission from, or created by means of computer processing of communications received by means of electronic transmission from, a subscriber or customer of the service; and
(ii) Solely for the purpose of providing storage or computer processing services to a subscriber or customer, if the provider is not authorized to access the contents of any communications for purposes of providing any services other than storage or computer processing.
(b) A person or entity may divulge the contents of a communication:
(1) To an addressee or intended recipient of the communication or an agent of the addressee or intended recipient;
(2) If authorized under the provisions of this subtitle;
(3) With the lawful consent of the originator or an addressee or intended recipient of the communication, or the subscriber in the case of remote computing service;
(4) To a person employed or authorized or whose facilities are used to forward the communication to its destination;
(5) If necessarily incident to the rendition of the service or to the protection of the rights or property of the provider of that service; or
(6) To a law enforcement agency, if the contents:
(i) Were inadvertently obtained by the service provider; and
(ii) Appear to pertain to the commission of a crime.
(2) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a person or entity providing remote computing service to the public may not knowingly divulge to any other person or entity the contents of any communication which is carried or maintained on that service:
(i) On behalf of, and received by means of electronic transmission from, or created by means of computer processing of communications received by means of electronic transmission from, a subscriber or customer of the service; and
(ii) Solely for the purpose of providing storage or computer processing services to a subscriber or customer, if the provider is not authorized to access the contents of any communications for purposes of providing any services other than storage or computer processing.
(b) A person or entity may divulge the contents of a communication:
(1) To an addressee or intended recipient of the communication or an agent of the addressee or intended recipient;
(2) If authorized under the provisions of this subtitle;
(3) With the lawful consent of the originator or an addressee or intended recipient of the communication, or the subscriber in the case of remote computing service;
(4) To a person employed or authorized or whose facilities are used to forward the communication to its destination;
(5) If necessarily incident to the rendition of the service or to the protection of the rights or property of the provider of that service; or
(6) To a law enforcement agency, if the contents:
(i) Were inadvertently obtained by the service provider; and
(ii) Appear to pertain to the commission of a crime.
Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site
Need a lawyer in Maryland?
Find a Maryland lawyer
About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the
Open US Law dataset
(Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine
(Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.