US court backs email hacking
Source: Agencies |
October 11, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE US government obtained secret court orders to force Google and a small Internet provider to hand over information from the email accounts of a WikiLeaks volunteer, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
The United States request demanded the email addresses of people with whom Jacob Appelbaum, a volunteer for the campaigning website, had corresponded in the past two years, but not the full emails, the newspaper said, citing documents it had reviewed.
Internet provider Sonic said it fought the government order legally and lost, and was forced to turn over information, the company's chief executive, Dane Jasper, told the newspaper.
Appelbaum, 28, has not been charged with any wrongdoing, the daily said.
Google declined to comment, the Wall Street Journal said.
WikiLeaks last year angered the US government by making public tens of thousands of secret US files and diplomatic cables that embarrassed Washington, as well as a classified video of a US military operation in Iraq.
The Google order, dated January 4, directed the search giant to turn over the IP address from which Appelbaum logged into his Gmail account and the email and IP addresses of the users with whom he communicated dating back to November 1, 2009.
The controversial court orders are expected to add fuel to a growing debate over a controversial law - the Electronic Communications Privacy Act - that allows the US government secretly to obtain information from people's emails and cellphones without a search warrant.
This year, micro-blogging website Twitter fought a similar court order to hand over details of the accounts of several WikiLeaks supporters, including Appelbaum, as part of a criminal investigation launched by the Department of Justice into the leaking of confidential US documents.
The United States request demanded the email addresses of people with whom Jacob Appelbaum, a volunteer for the campaigning website, had corresponded in the past two years, but not the full emails, the newspaper said, citing documents it had reviewed.
Internet provider Sonic said it fought the government order legally and lost, and was forced to turn over information, the company's chief executive, Dane Jasper, told the newspaper.
Appelbaum, 28, has not been charged with any wrongdoing, the daily said.
Google declined to comment, the Wall Street Journal said.
WikiLeaks last year angered the US government by making public tens of thousands of secret US files and diplomatic cables that embarrassed Washington, as well as a classified video of a US military operation in Iraq.
The Google order, dated January 4, directed the search giant to turn over the IP address from which Appelbaum logged into his Gmail account and the email and IP addresses of the users with whom he communicated dating back to November 1, 2009.
The controversial court orders are expected to add fuel to a growing debate over a controversial law - the Electronic Communications Privacy Act - that allows the US government secretly to obtain information from people's emails and cellphones without a search warrant.
This year, micro-blogging website Twitter fought a similar court order to hand over details of the accounts of several WikiLeaks supporters, including Appelbaum, as part of a criminal investigation launched by the Department of Justice into the leaking of confidential US documents.
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