Court To Twitter: No Time For Appeal, Hand Over Info Or You're In Contempt

from the ouch dept

We've been covering the legal fight concerning the government's desire to access Tweets and other information related to Malcolm Harris, an Occupy Wall Street protestor who was arrested. Twitter had jumped into the case to argue that users have standing to protect their own information, which the court denied. Twitter then said it would appeal, but it appears that NY State Supreme Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. doesn't care, claiming that its failure to hand over the info may put it in contempt of court:

The judge had asked Twitter to show why it wasn’t in contempt of court after refusing to produce information about Twitter posts by protester Malcolm Harris in response to a subpoena from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

“I can’t put Twitter or the little blue bird in jail, so the only way to punish is monetarily,” Sciarrino said.

Twitter and Harris's lawyers point out that this seems to completely ignore Twitter's right to appeal the ruling. Sciarrino again doesn't seem to think this is an issue, insisting that his original ruling was "fair" and Twitter has had more than enough time to comply with the order. Harris' lawyer notes that this appears to be an attempt at railroading, preventing due process from happening:

“It’s pretty outrageous that the D.A.’s office wants to prohibit Twitter from exercising its right to appeal,” said Martin Stolar, a lawyer with the National Lawyers Guild who represents Harris, after the hearing.

Unfortunately, that seems to be how things work these days...

Filed Under: appeal, due process, info, malcolm harris, new york, privacy
Companies: twitter

The Info Law Enforcement Gets When They Subpoena Facebook

from the your-friends-in-the-government dept

With the US government looking for software that will let them manage fake profiles on social networks, in order to "infiltrate" groups, you might have forgotten that they can also take the easy way out and issue a subpoena. While Julian Assange is certainly being hyperbolic with his claims that "Facebook... is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented," it is worth remembering that the US government can access all sorts of info from Facebook. The Next Web has a the details of what kind of info Facebook provides law enforcement on the receipt of a valid subpoena. Of course, this certainly doesn't mean Facebook is handing over this kind of info willy-nilly (this isn't AT&T we're talking about here...). Also, none of this is a huge surprise, but just a reminder that Facebook likely has a lot of info about you, and when put together, could allow the government to collect a pretty detailed dossier on certain aspects of your life:

Once Facebook has the form submitted, they will then prepare an archive for the police to review. That archive will include the following.

• User ID number
• Email address
• Date and Time of your account’s creation
• The most recent logins, usually the last 2-3 days
• Your phone number, if you registered it
• Profile contact info
• Mini-feed
• Status update history
• Shares
• Notes
• Wall posts
• Friends list
• Groups list
• Future and past events
• Videos
• Photos
• Private messages
• IP logs (computers and locations you logged in from)

You’ll notice that this list includes just about everything that you’ve posted to Facebook. In addition, it also includes a list of your Friends, which you didn’t technically add to Facebook yourself.

Again, there's nothing surprising here, but when laid out directly, it may make some people realize that relying so much on a third party like Facebook to manage such a large part of your life also opens yourself up to certain risks.

Filed Under: info, law enforcement, subpoenas
Companies: facebook

EFF, ACLU Fighting Gov't Attempt To Troll Twitter Accounts For Wikileaks Info

from the fed-trolling dept

At the beginning of January, thanks to Twitter pushing back against a gag order and request from the feds to hand over info of people connected to Wikileaks, it came out publicly that the government was seeking such info. Of course, the government almost certainly sent similar requests to a bunch of other companies that simply rolled over. However, thanks to Twitter's willingness to stand up to the government, it's allowed the folks whose info was sought to fight back, though the initial steps in that fighting back were apparently gagged as well.

Thankfully, part of the gag has been lifted, and we now know that the EFF and the ACLU are challenging the info request and are seeking to have more documents in the case unsealed as well, including the Justice Department's original application for the order -- which should explain the reason for requesting the info. Who knows if the court will grant this, but once again, none of this would even be open for discussion if Twitter had just rolled over and handed the feds the info they demanded.

Filed Under: info, privacy, wikileaks
Companies: aclu, eff, twitter, wikileaks

Is It Good For Business To Say No To Gov't Requests For Info?

from the people-respect-that dept

Chris Soghoian recently gave a talk where he reminded companies that it actually can be good for business to say "no" when the government comes asking for info. He ran through a variety of scenarios (many covered here on Techdirt) when certain companies stood up to government requests and said no. When the news was later revealed, companies that have stood up to government requests often get very good press, while those who gave in, get really bad press. Of course, I think Chris may be overselling the case here, as it's not clear that the short burst of good PR from these situations really had a lasting impact. But, it is certainly one reason (among many) that companies shouldn't just roll over every time the government comes calling.

Filed Under: government, info, requests