Law / United States / 
Tennessee
Tennessee Personal and Commercial Computer Act, implicit consent for anonymous access
In force since .
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
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; the statute defines authorization as any form of consent, and its implicit-consent clause applies to networks operated to allow anonymous access.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 4.1Approaches for mapping AI technology and legal risks of its components – including the use of third-party data or software – are in place, followed, and documented, as are risks of infringement of a third party’s intellectual property or other rights.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Does a public website that serves every visitor without a login "allow anonymous access" under Tenn. Code Ann. section 39-14-602(c) even if its terms of use forbid automated collection?
- Does the implicit consent in Tenn. Code Ann. section 39-14-602(c) end once the operator tells an automated client in writing to stop accessing the network?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 39-14-602 as restated makes fraudulent access, intentional alteration or copying without authorization, and receipt of proceeds offences, makes unauthorized access, introducing a computer contaminant and possessing one a Class A misdemeanor, and treats a network that allows anonymous access as having given implicit consent. None requires a log or record. The section has no territorial clause.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 39-14-602 of the Tennessee Code, part of the Tennessee Personal and Commercial Computer Act of 2003, as restated by Public Chapter 1042 of 2022, which deleted subsections (a) through (c) and substituted the text described here (effective , for acts on or after that date). Subsection (b)(1) makes it an offense to intentionally and without authorization, directly or indirectly, access any computer, computer system, or computer network, a Class A misdemeanor.
Subsection (a)(1)(B) makes it an offense to intentionally and without authorization, directly or indirectly, alter, damage, destroy or disrupt a computer or its data, or make or cause to be made an unauthorized copy of computer data, computer programs or computer software, with penalties under § 39-14-105. Subsection (c) provides that operating a computer network in such a way as to allow anonymous access to that network constitutes implicit consent to access under the part.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web.
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