29-29.3-01. Definitions

29-29.3-01. Definitions As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Electronic communication" means transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, or photo-optical system. The term does not include the radio portion of a cordless telephone communication that is transmitted between the cordless telephone handset and the base unit, a wire or oral communication, a communication made through a tone-only paging device, or a communication from a tracking device. 2. "Electronic communication service" means any service that provides to users of the service the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications. 3. "Pen register" means a device that records or decodes electronic or other impulses that identify the number dialed or otherwise transmitted on the telephone line to which the device is attached, but the term does not include a 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 a device used by a provider or customer of a wire communication service for cost accounting or other like purposes in the ordinary course of its business. 4. "Tracking device" means an electronic or mechanical device that permits the tracing of the movement of a person or object. 5. "Trap and trace device" means a device which 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. 6. "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 any electronic storage of the communication, but does not include the radio portion of a cordless telephone communication that is transmitted between the cordless telephone handset and the base unit.