[governance] FW: Chevron Granted Access to Activists´ Private Internet Data

[michael gurstein]

From: sid-l at googlegroups.com [mailto:sid-l at googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of
Sid Shniad
Sent: Monday, July 15, 2013 4:58 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: Chevron Granted Access to Activists´ Private Internet Data

 

https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/07/11-3

Common Dreams    July 11, 2013


In 'Chilling' Ruling, Chevron Granted Access to Activists' Private Internet
Data


"Sweeping" subpoena violates rights of those who spoke out against oil
giant's devastating actions in Ecuador


- Lauren McCauley, staff writer 

Following their guilty sentence for the dumping of 18.5bn gallons of toxic
waste in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chevron is amassing the personal information
of the environmentalists and attorneys who fought against them in an effort
to prove 'conspiracy.' (Photo: Rainforest Action Network/ cc/ Flickr)The US
government is not the only entity who, with judicial approval, is amassing
massive amounts of personal information against their so-called enemies.

A federal judge has ruled
<http://dg5vd3ocj3r4t.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/documents/Kaplan-Or
der-Hotmail-IP-subpoena_0.pdf>  to allow Chevron, through a subpoena to
Microsoft, to collect the IP usage records and identity information for
email accounts owned by over 100 environmental activists, journalists and
attorneys.

The oil giant is demanding the records in an attempt to cull together a
lawsuit which alleges that the company was the victim of a conspiracy in the
$18.2 billion judgment against it for dumping 18.5 billion gallons of oil
waste  <http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/20-5> in the Ecuadorean
Amazon, causing untold damage to the rainforest.

The "sweeping" subpoena was one of three issued to Google, Yahoo! and
Microsoft.

"Environmental advocates have the right to speak anonymously and travel
without their every move and association being exposed to Chevron," said
<http://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-and-eri-fight-quash-speech-chilling-s
ubpoenas-chevron>  Marcia Hofmann, Senior Staff Attorney with the Electronic
Frontier Foundation <https://www.eff.org> , who—along with environmental
rights group EarthRights International (ERI)—had filed a motion last fall to
"quash" the subpoenas.

"These sweeping subpoenas create a chilling effect among those who have
spoken out against the oil giant's activities in Ecuador," she added at the
time.

According
<http://www.earthrights.org/blog/judge-chevron-can-access-its-critics-privat
e-user-information>  to ERI, the subpoena demands the personal information
about each account holder as well as the IP addresses associated with every
login to each account over a nine-year period. "This could allow Chevron to
determine the countries, states, cities or even buildings where the
account-holders were checking their email," they write, "so as to 'infer the
movements of the users over the relevant period and might permit Chevron to
makes inferences about some of the user’s professional and personal
relationships.'"

In their statement about the ruling, ERI notes that the argument given by
presiding US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan—who was previously accused of
prejudice against the Ecuadorians and their lawyers—was as "breathtaking as
the subpoena itself." They continue:

According to Judge Kaplan, none of the account holders could benefit from
First Amendment protections since the account holders had “not shown that
they were U.S. citizens.”

Now, let’s break this down. The account-holders in this case were proceeding
anonymously, which the First Amendment permits. Because of this, Judge
Kaplan was provided with no information about the account holders’ residency
or places of birth. It is somewhat amazing then, that Judge Kaplan assumed
that the account holders were not US citizens. As far as I know, a judge has
never before made this assumption when presented with a First Amendment
claim. We have to ask then: on what basis did Judge Kaplan reach out and
make this assumption?

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