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[privacy] Requests for Corporate Data Multiply
From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () bsf-llc com>
Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 13:03:47 -0400
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114808152438358490.html?mod=technology_main_ whats_news Requests for Corporate Data Multiply Businesses Juggle Law-Enforcement Demands For Information About Customers, Suppliers By ROBERT BLOCK May 20, 2006; Page A4 WASHINGTON -- Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, law enforcement efforts to secure corporate information about clients and suppliers have reached such levels that some companies have had to create special units that do nothing but deal with these demands, a process often called "subpoena management." Banks, Internet-service providers and other companies that possess large amounts of data on their customers say that police and intelligence agencies have been increasingly coming to them looking for tidbits of information that could help them stop everything from money launderers to pedophiles and terrorists. "Corporate counsel that used to see law-enforcement-related requests five times a year are now getting them sometimes dozens of times a day," says Susan Hackett, a senior vice president and top attorney for the Association of Corporate Counsel, which represents the legal departments of leading U.S. companies. In short, phone companies currently caught up in a controversy over reports that they gave the National Security Agency access to records of customers' calls are hardly the only businesses fretting over how to cooperate with the government in the war on terror. Internet and financial companies also are frequently targeted by intelligence and law enforcement agencies, forcing them into situations where they must choose between customers' rights to privacy and their own corporate desire to help the government without being seen as agents of the government. The situation is made even more complicated when the companies are government contractors, vying for federal business or in an industry subject to complicated regulation. Time <http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=TWX> Warner Inc.'s America Online Inc. employs more than a dozen people, including several former prosecutors, handling almost 12,000 requests a year from federal state and local police agencies. The unit works 24 hours a day, seven days a week and maintains a special hotline that police or federal agents can call to help them with their queries and tailor their requests. For the last five years the company has published a "Law Enforcement Training Manual" complete with information about how long the company retains basic subscriber information and unread email, to sample subpoena and court-order wordings to speed processing of the police demands. According to AOL executives, the most common requests in criminal cases relate to crimes against children, including abuse, abductions, and child pornography. Close behind are cases dealing with identity theft and other computer crimes. Sometimes the police requests are highly targeted and scrupulously legalistic, while other times they were seen by the company as little more than sloppy fishing expeditions. AOL says that most requests get turned down. "We have a very rigorous review process here," said John Ryan, AOL's vice president and associate general counsel. "Every request that comes in from law enforcement is vetted, and before any information is turned over an attorney with years of experience reviews it and determines whether or not any turn-around or process is required. I can say -- ballpark figure -- for every five requests that come in maybe one will fit the standard to a certain level and will be honored." ...
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- [privacy] Requests for Corporate Data Multiply Richard M. Smith (May 22)