Law / United States / 
Tennessee
Tennessee Personal and Commercial Computer Act, implicit consent for anonymous access
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force since 1 July 2003.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 29 August 2026.
What it requires
- Operating a network in a way that allows anonymous access to it constitutes the network operator's implicit consent to that access under Tennessee law; scraping a public, unauthenticated Tennessee-connected page is, by the statute's own terms, access the operator has impliedly consented to.
- Do not intentionally access a Tennessee-connected computer, computer system, or network without authorization; this is squarely prohibited once you defeat a technical access control or reach credentialed data outside the implicit-consent safe harbor.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
The Tennessee Personal and Commercial Computer Act of 2003 makes it an offense to intentionally and without authorization access a computer, computer system, or network.
Critically, the statute states that operating a computer network in such a way as to allow anonymous access to that network constitutes implicit consent to access under this part, a materially more scraping-favorable statutory answer than the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)'s contested authorization standard: a public, unauthenticated website that does not gate access is, by the statute's own terms, one the operator has impliedly consented to anonymous access to.
The Act's other codified sections (39-14-601, 603 to 606, covering definitions, other offenses, and remedies) are not described here. No Tennessee appellate decision applies this clause to a scraping or automated-collection fact pattern specifically, so treat the favorable reading as the statute's plain text rather than a litigated holding. No Tennessee-specific statute or case addresses ToS enforceability; ordinary contract law governs.
When LexLint raises it
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Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.