Emails are no longer just a means of exchanging words, but have become a repository for personal secrets, financial data, professional information, and official correspondence, making their protection a legal necessity no less important than the protection of homes or paper correspondence. In this regard, the Jordanian legislator has granted these messages comprehensive penal protection under Article (7) of the Cyber Crimes Law number (17) for the year 2023, not only criminalizing their interception, but also broadening the scope of protection to include various forms of tampering, affirming that digital privacy is a right that cannot be infringed under any pretext.
Contemplating the wording of Article (7) reveals a clear legislative philosophy, as the Jordanian legislator did not use a single term to describe an assault on electronic messages, but deliberately used a variety of actions including: interception, capture, obstruction, alteration, deletion, and recording. This multiplicity of terms was not merely for linguistic diversity, but was intended to broaden the scope of legal protection and close any loophole that might allow evasion of responsibility on the grounds that the committed act does not match a specific legal description. Every form of tampering with electronic messages has now found its place within the statute, reflecting a legislative awareness of the nature of cyber crimes and their evolving methods.
The protection encompasses all stages of an electronic message; interception is achieved by preventing it from reaching its intended recipient, capture by obtaining its content or viewing it by any unauthorized means, while recording refers to preserving the message for later reference. The legislator has also criminalized obstruction, which delays the arrival of the message, and alteration, which completely or partially changes its content, as well as deletion, which leads to the destruction or erasure of its content. Thus, the text leaves no form of assault on electronic messages unprotected.
The importance of this statute is that it protects the trust that modern communication methods are based upon; nowadays, individuals exchange official documents, contracts, financial data, family secrets, and professional information through their phones and computers, and any assault on these correspondences could potentially open the door to more severe crimes like cyber extortion, defamation, identity theft, or data exploitation for unlawful gains.
For the commission of this crime, the legislator stipulated that the act must be committed intentionally and without just cause, meaning that the perpetrator is aware that they are interfering with a message or data they have no legal right to access, and that their intent is to commit any of the acts specified in the referred statute. Thus, criminal responsibility arises only when there is intentional misconduct, not merely unintentional error.
As for the penalties, Article (7/a) prescribes imprisonment for a minimum of six months and a fine not less than (1500) dinars and not more than (6000) dinars for anyone committing any of these acts. The legislator did not stop there; the penalty is intensified in subsection (b) of the same article if the perpetrator discloses, leaks, or uses what they obtained through interception, making the penalty imprisonment for no less than a year, with a fine not less than (3000) dinars and not exceeding (6000) dinars, because the real danger sometimes lies not in obtaining the message, but in exploiting it to harm others.
Legal protection reaches its highest levels if the assault involves information or data or communications belonging to an official entity, as paragraph (c) of the same article categorizes the act as a felony, punishing the perpetrator with temporary hard labor for no less than five years, and a fine not less than (1500) dinars and not exceeding (45000) dinars, given the potential implications for public interest and national security.
Article (7) of the Cyber Crimes Law is not merely a punitive text, but a reflection of a legislative trend that keeps pace with technological advancements and protects one of the most important constitutional rights, the right to privacy. It also sends a clear message to society that electronic messages are not free-for-all simply because they are accessible, and that curiosity, personal disputes, or a desire to retaliate do not give anyone the right to intercept, record, alter, or publish them.
Being aware of these provisions is no longer a choice, but a necessity for every user of modern communication methods. Respecting the privacy of others is a moral responsibility before being a legal obligation, and the Jordanian legislator, by expanding the scope of criminalization and using multiple and precise terms in Article (7) of the Cyber Crimes Law, intends to send a clear message that any assault on electronic messages, no matter its form or means, will find a legal text that protects the right, safeguards privacy, and holds the offender accountable.
