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What Are The Limits To Online Anonymity?
from the not-so-clear dept
Online anonymity is always a controversial topic, and Public Citizen and the EFF have filed a brief in a case in Arizona that raises some interesting issues about the limits of internet anonymity. The case concerns someone who anonymously used a service to take an email from a married company CEO to his mistress, and forward it to other execs at the company. Rather than the CEO accusing the anonymous emailer with privacy violations, he had the company accuse the user of hacking into their email system, noting that there was no other way the email could have been revealed. The company then went after the anonymous emailing service the person used to try to determine his identity. There is no evidence that the content really was illegally obtained, but a judge has ruled that the service needs to give up the info on the emailer. There's an appeal going on, and Public Citizen and the EFF are asking that the court to recognize that there should really be evidence of wrongdoing before anonymity is removed. Obviously, there needs to be some sort of balance between potential wrongdoing and anonymity, but anonymity is an important thing to support as well -- and so it should only be removed under very clear circumstances when a clear crime has been committed.
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What Are The Limits To Online Anonymity?
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One of those has a private email service LOL
Did you see that "DONT LET YOUR EMPLOYER SEE WHAT YOUR DOING ONLINE" and some of you people want them to? BY COURT ORDERS? ARE YOU NAZI'S OR stasi members.
If some of you was online and the email was on a main server and you forwarded to all the board members to read in a secret email forward system. You'll get FIRED cause you think it would be ok for the company to asked a court room to ID you. You could lose your $400,000 thousand dollar job, then SUED and probably face a FINE or a stint in prison, there goes the wife, the giant house and brand new toyota.
You realize that if you can crack into the CEO's email then you can read every thing about that company, I'm sure there has got to be more then who the guy was screwing in his high raise office window :) in his email system.
May be the CEO is smelling something 'fishy'....lol about this secret emails and dreamed up his own internet LAWS that now we all have to live by them. LOL what planet is he on?
He should have to prove that their sever was CRACKED into and it was not some one with passwords to the server and what not inside the company that was sending these emails to all of the other board members and prove it wasn't even his LOVER or his own kids playing with his computer mad that their father was screwing around on their mother?
I'm thinking of the companies President, VP some one who wants to be at the next stock holders meeting and introduced as the NEW CEO or a security person working on their behalf.
Systems always have backdoors with master passwords and the people who runs the computers has that backdoor. Regardless we have standards in america and one of those virtues is freedom to be anonymous and not to be so retarded like that CEO?
If the email company saids we give you privacy then they better own up to their words! Or it should be law suit heaven. They would be out of business over night if they are on dow jones then there stock could go from $50 bucks to .13 cents.
So would every company like that so that court ruling sucks like a "Toothless hooker in a CEO office"!
I believe that the internet is a world wide internet and it's not just USA laws that apply. If they showed the court system that the email sever was in North Korea that was used to email the other board members of that company then foreign laws do apply for the email company so they can say NO and appeal. Anonymity is a big business but I think it serves a purpose in a crooked world like we live in. You have to have some anonymity to be human.
BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click Online |
The cost of online anonymity
In countries where free speech is limited, hiding your true identity online is becoming big business.
http://www.google.com/search?lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Online%20anonymity
The judge is just wrong. There has to be bonafide evidence that the CEO's email was CRACKED INTO by some foreign out side source.
The court must look into the technology of today and make sure it was not a USB drive, scan disk or downloaded into a palm pilot, cell phone or a watch stuck into the CEO's own computer from an employee.
Then later emailed out from a laptop a Tablet or a black berry from an starbucks using a secret forwarding emailing company that you found on a google ad while reading Tech Dirt. While you were sipping on your hot cappuccino coffee eating your illegal big mac and smoking your illegal marlboro, thinking your be Anonymous from your CEO?
You know if the person was really savay they would have paid Kinkos or UPS used their computers to forward to the secert emailing company or that black building with guy's in rain coats and sunglasses. In so many corners in america called a 'library'.
By the way lets not pretend that we live in CHINA and you can't have Anonymity. Just think if we was in some type of Nazi nation and you had no Anonymity at all and you was jewish. You would be in a camp some day! so yes Anonymity is legal here and has been since we fought for those rights in 1776!
I hope the person used
Tor (anonymity network) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tor (The Onion Router) is a free software implementation of second-generation ... Tor operates an overlay network of onion routers that enables two things: ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network) - 30k - Cached - Similar page
I would like to point out that the CEO didn't have a PRIVATE COMPUTER some type of LAP TOP he could have used to email his SLUTS with?
He couldn't found a way to keep these emails private using 'BLOW FISH' or delete those emails just incase some one would read them and forward them to all the board members?
I believe that the court system should have reviewed his behavior and not the EMAIL companies behavior. In other words what type of security do you have installed in the CEO computer? I mean if that is leaked out then we could get a great scoop for stock trades and so on. By the way what company is this TechDirt :) HP ????? LOL :) it's was Dunn and SHE WANTS TO KNOW!!!!
I've read some of these post they go off the deep end I didn't read that the CEO was with any thing but another adult. If he wasn't the judge wouldn't be on his side at all!
If the CEO was doing any thing ILLEGAL and he wanted to know who TOLD... would that make sense to force the email company to give it up?
I also would like to point out that I don't see a crime here. Forwarding emails is not a crime!!!!!!! Cracking into the computer network has to be proven period that would be a crime, you make cracking into his computer illegal not a private emailiing company FORWARDING EMAILS.
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