Should social networks hand over the personal data of their users to the government during criminal investigations? That’s the question being raised by a recent subpoena issued from the Boston D.A.’s office to the social networking giant Twitter.
In 2011, two Twitter users are alleged to have hacked into the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association and then distributed some of the identifying info via their Twitter feeds. As part of the investigation into the hacking, the Suffolk D.A.’s office has issued a subpoena to Twitter, requesting the company to hand over as much as personal information as possible about the accounts associated with the crime. Along with two Twitter account names, the D.A. also requested information about a user with the name Guido Fawkes. Interestingly, one of the account names listed in the subpoena was @OccupyBoston. Likely, though, the D.A. intended to request information about @Occupy_Boston, which posts updates about the Occupy Movement in the Boston area.
While the D.A. requested that Twitter keep the subpoena request private, it was almost immediately leaked. According to the company’s law enforcement section, Twitter says it will always inform a user before handing over their information to authorities, which may have been the motivation behind the leak. Unlike other social networking sites, though, Twitter doesn’t go through the trouble of checking user names or email addresses for authentication, so the company may only have user IP addresses to provide the D.A.’s office.
In a statement about the leak, Twitter said “To help users protect their rights, it is our policy to notify our users about law enforcement and governmental requests for their information, unless we are prevented by law from doing so.”
Image c/o: stepnout
