When used in this chapter:
(1) “Aggrieved person” means a person who was a party to any intercepted wire, oral or electronic communication or a person against whom the interception was directed.
(2) “Aural transfer” means a transfer containing the human voice at any point between and including the point of origin and the point of reception.
(3) “Communication common carrier” means any person engaged as a common carrier for hire in the transmission of wire or electronic communications.
(4) “Contents,” when used with respect to any wire, oral or electronic communication, includes any information concerning the identity of the parties to the communication or the existence or substance of that communication.
(5) “Electronic communication” means any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data or intelligence of any electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photooptical system. However, “electronic communication” does not include:
a. Any wire or oral communication;
b. Any communication made through a tone-only paging device; or
c. Any communication from a tracking device.
(6) “Electronic communication service” means any service that provides to users of the service the ability to send or receive wire, oral or electronic communications.
(7) “Electronic communications system” means any wire, oral, radio, electromagnetic, photooptical or photoelectronic facilities for the transmission of wire, oral or electronic communications, and any computer facilities or related electronic equipment for the wire, oral or electronic storage of electronic communications.
(8) “Electronic, mechanical, or other device” means any device or electronic communication instrument other than:
a. Any telephone or telegraph instrument, equipment or other facility for the transmission of electronic communications, or any component thereof, which is furnished to the subscriber or user by a provider of wire or electronic communication service in the ordinary course of its business and is being used by the subscriber or user in the ordinary course of its business or furnished by the subscriber or user for connection to the facilities of the service and used in the ordinary course of its business or which is being used by a communications common carrier in the ordinary course of its business or which is being used by an investigative or law-enforcement officer in the ordinary course of that officer’s duties; or,
b. A hearing aid or similar device being used to correct subnormal hearing to not better than normal.
(9) “Electronic storage” means any temporary, intermediate storage of a wire, oral or electronic communication incidental to the electronic transmission of the communication. “Electronic storage” includes any storage of a wire, oral or electronic communication by an electronic communication service for purposes of backup protection of the communication.
(10) “Intercept” means the aural or other acquisition of the contents of any wire, oral or electronic communication through the use of any electronic, mechanical or other device.
(11) “Investigative or law-enforcement officer” means any officer of this State or a political subdivision of this State, who is empowered by law to conduct investigations or to make arrests for offenses enumerated in this title, any sworn law-enforcement officer of the federal government or of any other state or a political subdivision of another state working with and under the direction of an investigative or law-enforcement officer of this State or a political subdivision of this State, or any attorney authorized by law to prosecute or participate in the prosecution of such offenses.
(12) “Judge,” when referring to a judge authorized to receive applications for and to enter orders authorizing interception of wire, oral or electronic communications, means 1 or more of the several Judges of the Superior Court to be designated from time to time by the President Judge of the Superior Court to receive applications for and to enter orders authorizing interception of wire, oral or electronic communications pursuant to this chapter.
(13) “Oral communication” means any oral communication uttered by a person made while exhibiting an expectation that such communication is not subject to interception and under circumstances justifying such expectation, but such term does not include any electronic communication.
(14) “Pen register” means a device that records and decodes electronic or other impulses that identify the numbers dialed or otherwise transmitted on the telephone line to which the device is attached. “Pen register” does not include any device used by a provider or customer of a wire or electronic communication service for billing, or recording as an incident to billing, for communications services provided by the provider or any device used by a provider or customer of a wire communication service for cost accounting or other similar purposes in the ordinary course of its business.
(15) “Person” means any employee or agent of this State or a political subdivision thereof, or any individual, partnership, association, joint stock company, trust or corporation.
(16) “Readily accessible to the general public” means, with respect to a radio communication, that the communication is not:
a. Scrambled or encrypted;
b. Transmitted using modulation techniques the essential parameters of which have been withheld from the public with the intention of preserving the privacy of the communication; or
c. Except for tone-only paging device communications, transmitted over frequencies reserved for private use and licensed for private use under federal or State law.
(17) “Remote computing service” means the provision to the public of computer storage or processing services by means of an electronic communications system.
(18) “Trap and trace device” means a device that captures the incoming electronic or other impulses that identify the originating number of an instrument or device from which a wire or electronic communication was transmitted.
(19) “User” means any person or entity that uses an electronic communication service and is duly authorized by the provider of the service to engage in that use.
(20) “Wire communication” means any aural transfer made in whole or in part through the use of facilities for the transmission of communications by the aid of wire, cable or other like connection between the point of origin and the point of reception (including the use of a connection in a switching station) furnished or operated by any person licensed to engage in providing or operating such facilities for the transmission of communications.