Justice Department Ordered Online News Website To Divulge Data About Visitors
And to keep the existence of the demand a secret as well.
In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day. The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site ‘not to disclose the existence of this request’ unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation got involved and the subpoena has been killed, but it does set up interesting questions about online privacy.
If you visit a website, are the traces of your visit private and protected? Or, put another way, as a site owner is the data about your visitors and posters private and protected? Who owns that data? The site owner? The visitors? If you walk into a retail store the fact that you visited isn’t necessarily private. If you visit a public website, is that private?
If Indymedia had decided to cooperate with the government voluntarily, would they have violated the privacy of their visitors and/or posters? Can the government compel such cooperation? What standards does the government have to meet to compel such cooperation?
All good questions without perfect answers. One thing is clear, though. The Justice Department’s handling of this subpoena was wrong. It shouldn’t have been a secret. If the government is going to seek data like this it should be above board with the requests.
