(credit: Aurich x Getty)

If you have any legally incriminating information sitting in your PSN account, don’t count on the Fourth Amendment to protect it from “unreasonable search and seizure” by Sony without a warrant. A district court judge in Kansas has ruled in a recent case that information Sony finds has been downloaded to a PlayStation 3 or a PSN account is not subject to the “reasonable expectation of privacy” that usually protects evidence obtained without a warrant.

The case involves Michael Stratton, who went by the handle Susan_14 on PSN. According to Sony, Stratton was reported to PSN multiple times for sending spam messages asking about interest in child pornography. After reviewing the Susan_14 account in response to these complaints, Sony found that several images containing child porn had been downloaded by and uploaded to the account.

Sony shared information about the Susan_14 account and the images with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The NCMEC then coordinated with the FBI to get additional information about Susan_14’s e-mail address and IP address from Google and CenturyLink via subpoena. This action led to a warrant on Stratton’s Kansas home, the discovery of child pornography stored on his PS3, and his arrest.