HDTV/3D TV News
A new can of privacy worms has been opened up with the revelation that South Tyneside council has successfully obtained user data from Twitter via a US court.
The council went to a court in California to find the identity of the person behind a number of Twitter accounts linked to a blog written by a “Mr Monkey” which made a number of unfounded allegations against council big-wigs.
Independent South Shields councillor Ahmed Khan, who was suspected of being the blog author, was told by Twitter on April 15th that a request for his details had been made, with the data released on May 5th.
He denies being the author of the blog (although admits owning one of the accounts), and he didn’t fight the action as he “had no knowledge of US law and was wary of the costs involved” (which he would have had to fund himself).
Of course, South Tyneside council didn’t have to fund its action as reportedly the bid for data on the web-based simian came from taxpayer’s lolly.
Regarding the amount of funds spent, councillor Khan tweeted: “Estimates range from £250k – £500k if all factors are taken into account.” The council has denied this amount and other sources are reporting £70,000, although that’s still a substantial sum of money, obviously.
The whole affair has caused rumblings regarding the Ryan Giggs super-injunction case, and whether the footballer’s legal team will now be confident they can pull the same trick off in identifying leak sources on Twitter.
Twitter’s European chief commented last week that when dealing with illegal activities, Twitter would co-operate with authorities and hand over the user’s details. However, it wasn’t thought that US courts would be co-operative with UK authorities seeking such data due to freedom of speech issues.
I would like to know a) how long a can of privacy worms will stay ‘fresh’ after being opened b) how to tell the difference between privacy worms and non privacy worms c) what the world’s supply of unopened privacy worm cans is and how long it is expected to last d) what we’ll do after the last cna has been opened and e) what fool has gone to the trouble of canning worms in the first place since if they are unopened we never use them and if they are opened, they are just a problem?
Answers on an e-postcard please to ‘Tortured metaphor department, Techwatch co uk’
Additionally to this, the allegations were against individual councillors, who should have brought action individually – not the council, who themselves were not subject to potential defamation.