VPNs with servers in the Cayman Islands

The exceptions include a warrant or order issued by the Governor and interception by the network or service provider for billing, to prevent illegal use or to preserve technical integrity (s. 75(2)). The ICT Act imposes no duty to retain subscriber or traffic data; its one retention provision requires broadcasting licensees to keep a recording of local programming (s. 57). Whether a VPN operator is an ICT network or service provider is not established.

The ICT Act provides no power to block websites. Its content standards (ss. 55–56) bind the local television and radio programming of licensees, who must exclude, among other things, material likely to encourage or incite a crime or lead to disorder. Under the Computer Misuse Law a court that convicts may forfeit property used to commit or facilitate the offence (s. 14).

Section 90 of the ICT Act makes it an offence knowingly to use an ICT network or service to defraud, abuse, annoy, threaten or harass another person: a fine of $10,000 and one year on summary conviction, $20,000 and two years on indictment, and the court may restrain the person from using ICT services.

The Computer Misuse Law punishes unauthorised access to computer material with a fine of $5,000 or two years (s. 3) and unauthorised use or interception of a computer service with $6,000 or two years (s. 6). A warrant reaches information identifying the origin and destination of a message and the date and time it was sent or received (Interception Regulations 2011, reg. 2).

Under the Interception of Telecommunication Messages Regulations, 2011, the Governor may issue a warrant to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service only if satisfied that interception is proportionate and the information cannot be obtained by less intrusive means (reg. 5). A warrant lasts at most three months and may be renewed (regs. 12–13).

Since 2016 the Commissioner of Police must arrange destruction of intercepted material once it is no longer needed (reg. 8A), and unauthorised disclosure of a warrant is an offence (regs. 9A–9B).

The Interception of Communication Audit Committee, a retired judge as chair and three Justices of the Peace since 2016, audits all interception equipment and data records at least once every six months and reports to the National Security Council within thirty days (regs. 17, 18, 20). Its members serve at the pleasure of the Governor in Cabinet. The order of the rows is the security score, and a server’s location is not a recommendation.