US Judge Seeks to Invalidate Privacy Policies
June 9, 2007 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under Computers
Few things are more dangerous than n00bs in robes. To facilitate a fishing expedition for the MPAA, federal judge Jacqueline Chooljian of the Central District of California wants popular torrent search engine TorrentSpy to break its own privacy policy.
TorrentSpy, a popular BitTorrent search engine, was ordered on May 29 by a federal judge in the Central District of California in Los Angeles to create logs detailing users’ activities on the site. The judge, Jacqueline Chooljian, however, granted a stay of the order on Friday to allow TorrentSpy to file an appeal.
The appeal must be filed by June 12, according to Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy’s attorney.
TorrentSpy has promised in its privacy policy never to track visitors without their consent.
I can’t overemphasize how dangerous this precedent is. If allowed to stand, all website privacy policies can be invalidated whenever someone wants to go digging for dirt. Your personal information will be at the mercy of anyone who can pay a judge.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[…] A US judge yesterday ordered popular torrent search engine TorrentSpy to break its own privacy policy by turning over users’ personal information for the MPAA to dig through. In response, TorrentSpy claims it has no personal information to give. […]
[...] of America simply by reminding them that the global market is bigger than America. After a US court rules that torrent search engine TorrentSpy should violate their users’ privacy and hand over user [...]
[...] and entertainment. You will recall that TorrentSpy chose to lose its US traffic rather than break its own privacy policy. In the digital world, the “pirates” have more honor than the Navy. [...]