In the Tuesday, July 8, 2008, "Technology Section", of The New York Times, Saul Hansell wrote an article entitled "One Subpoena Is All It Takes to Reveal Your Online Life." Mr. Hansell does an excellent job in exposing one of the dirty little secrets going on in our society that exposes thousands of innocent people into revealing their personal information online. It is not done by some 16-year old kid in the basement of his parents house, or some dumpster-diver in the back alley of an insurance company. Nope, the kind of exposure of personal information Mr. Hansell is referring to has to deal with information about people which is revealed through a court process (i.e. Subpoenas), either as part of a criminal investigation or civil dispute.
The personal information of the individual that is exposed usually has nothing to do with the investigation or dispute. In fact, the individual probably has no idea who the parties in dispute are, or the fact that their online habits are assisting in a criminal investigation. The latest example of this is when Google was ordered by a court to turn over records of activity on YouTube, including user names and IP (Internet Protocol) addresses of people who watched videos. The interesting thing about this case is that it was a civil dispute involving Viacom, Inc., against YouTube, alleging copyright infringement. Viacom says that it will not use the information from Google to sue individual YouTube users for copyright infringement, but there is nothing under law preventing them from doing just that.
Mr. Hansell argues that Congress has passed a variety of laws to protect one’s personal information from being public: everything from banking and medical records, to what television channels one watches and types of movies a person rents. He feels that the Internet sites an individual visits should be afforded the same protections. Otherwise, when served with a subpoena, every corporate legal counsel, representing service providers, must comply with the court order or face criminal prosecution for non-compliance. The subpoena can become public record, and allow others to gain access to personal information through various unscrupulous means.
To read Mr. Hansell’s article in full, please click here: One Subpoena Is All It Takes to Reveal Your Online Life