Published in Graphics

US government loses snooping case

by on10 November 2009


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Wanting readers names unconstitutional


The US Government has lost a case where it demanded the IP address of every visitor to an online magazine and not to tell anyone that it happened. The government clearly had an interest in the readers of Indymedia who are clearly alternative types who didn't like the Bush administration much.

When governments don't like people they usually watch them and prevent them from travelling or make life difficult for them. According to Boing Boing the order to watch Indymedia came doing the dying days of the Bush administration, but was enacted 10 days after Obama took over. What got the lobby group the Electronic Frontier Foundation fuming was that the government was doing something unconstitutional and demanding that the magazine not tell anyone what it was doing.

The government said in the first page of the subpoena: "You are not to disclose the existence of this request unless authorized by the Assistant U.S. Attorney. Any such disclosure would impede the investigation being conducted and thereby interfere with the enforcement of the law."

Actually this threat was completely illegal. US law doesn't require the recipient of a federal grand jury subpoena to keep the subpoena secret. The government could have obtained a court order requiring silence when the recipient's disclosure would have an adverse affect on an investigation, however the government didn't.

Once the illegality of the gagging order was revealed, the EFF took the government to court and killed the request for data. It was easy as the snoops had no right to make that sort of request. What worries the EFF is that there must be other ISPs and small online magazines who have violated their users' privacy by handing over data that the “Land of the Free” government wasn't entitled.
Last modified on 11 November 2009
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