Secret Orders Target Email

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203476804576613284007315072.html

By Julia Angwin
Technology
The Wall Street Journal
October 10, 2011

The U.S. government has obtained a controversial type of secret court 
order to force Google Inc. and small Internet provider Sonic.net Inc. to 
turn over information from the email accounts of WikiLeaks volunteer 
Jacob Appelbaum, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street 
Journal.

Sonic said it fought the government's order and lost, and was forced to 
turn over information. Challenging the order was "rather expensive, but 
we felt it was the right thing to do," said Sonic's chief executive, 
Dane Jasper. The government's request included the email addresses of 
people Mr. Appelbaum corresponded with the past two years, but not the 
full emails.

Both Google and Sonic pressed for the right to inform Mr. Appelbaum of 
the secret court orders, according to people familiar with the 
investigation. Google declined to comment. Mr. Appelbaum, 28 years old, 
hasn't been charged with wrongdoing.

The court clashes in the WikiLeaks case provide a rare public window 
into the growing debate over a federal law that lets the government 
secretly obtain information from people's email and cellphones without a 
search warrant. Several court decisions have questioned whether the law, 
the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, violates the U.S. 
Constitution's Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable 
searches and seizures.

[...]


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