It’s a warm and fuzzy feeling to know that somewhere, far away, people are thinking about you. Last night I received this rather interesting e-mail from twitter:
Kessel, Jan-07 11:20 am (PST):
Dear Twitter User:We are writing to inform you that Twitter has received legal process requesting information regarding your Twitter account, @rop_g. A copy of the legal process is attached. The legal process requires Twitter to produce documents related to your account.
Please be advised that Twitter will respond to this request in 10 days from the date of this notice unless we receive notice from you that a motion to quash the legal process has been filed or that this matter has been otherwise resolved.
To respond to this notice, please e-mail us at <removed>.
This notice is not legal advice. You may wish to consult legal counsel about this matter. If you need assistance seeking counsel, you may consider contacting the Electronic Frontier Foundation <contact info removed> or the ACLU <contact info removed>.
Sincerely,
Twitter Legal
While I was still thinking about whether to write about this or talk to my lawyer first, I was told the mail and attachments were already published by Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com, including the original subpoena dated December 14, 2010. It says the DOJ wants twitter’s records on Jacob Appelbaum (a.k.a. ioerror), Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Wikileaks, Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and yours truly. This all because, apparently, “the Court finds that the applicant has offered specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the records or other information sought are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.”
Plenty of thoughts to be had over this one. For one: in a case like this you’d think they would check the spelling of my last name. Furthermore I would have guessed that the US government has more discreet and effective ways of getting my IP-number, which is essentially all this would get them.
Also it appears that twitter, as a matter of policy, does the right thing in wanting to inform their users when one of these comes in. For those who wonder if twitter ignored a court order by telling me: I did get a second PDF with a January 5 order to unseal the subpoena so that twitter could tell me, which is quite possibly the result of some communication between twitter and the DOJ. Heaven knows how many places have received similar subpoenas and just quietly submitted all they had on me.
Hi Rop,
Another paranoid witch-hunt of the US, see my blog:
http://i-nomad-life.blogspot.com/2011/01/us-orders-to-hand-over-private-info.html
Good luck!
[...] denen sie die isländische Parlamentsabgeordnete Birgitta Jonsdottir, den niederländischen Hacker Rop Gonggrijp, den US-Programmierer Jacob Appelbaum und den US-Soldaten Bradley Manning vermuten. Sie alle sollen [...]
[...] a blog post, Gonggrijp disclosed the email that Twitter sent him, which said: “Please be advised that [...]
[...] Blog war am Samstag zu lesen: “Noch ein Grund, Twitter nicht zu benutzen.” und “Rops Twitter-Accountdaten haben sie auch beschlagnahmt” sowie “Twitter hat sich offensichtlich erfolgreich gegen den zur Wehr gesetzt. Wow! [...]
[...] government representative. The 2703(d) order misspelled the names of one of the targets, Rop Gonggrijp. It also requested credit card and bank account numbers of several Twitter users, even though [...]
Sterkte Rob!
Met Elleboog: Nog een appeltaart!
[...] doch eine etwas kompliziertere Sache. Positiv ist zu erwähnen dass Twitter die Betroffenen informiert und ihnen empfiehlt sich an Organisation wie die Electronic Frontier Foundation zu [...]
[...] a continuación, habida cuenta de 10 días para emprender acciones legales. Usuario @ rop_g recibido el correo electrónico siguiente. Kessel, Jan-07 11: 20 am (PST):Twitter Estimado [...]
Stop using Twitter….you twits.
[...] Assange, drei weiterer Personen. Wie der Spiegel berichtet, sollen der niederländische Hacker Rop Gonggrijp, die isländische Parlamentsabgeordnete Birgitta Jónsdóttir und der US-Programmierer Jacob [...]
[...] above report links to one of the targeted users, who reproduced the notification from [...]
[...] http://rop.gonggri.jp/?p=442 [...]
[...] Zeven januari kreeg hij een e-mail van de advocaat van Twitter. De microbloggingsdienst had een gerechtelijk bevel ontvangen om de gegevens van Gonggrijps twitteraccount aan het Amerikaanse OM te overhandigen. Ook de twittergegevens van de klokkenluiderssite zelf, het IJslandse parlementslid en oud-WikiLeaks-medewerker Birgitta Jónsdóttir, hacker Jacob Appelbaum, van de Amerikaanse militair Bradley Manning (die verdacht wordt een bron van WikiLeaks te zijn) en baas Julian Assange zijn opgevraagd. In het gerechtelijk bevel stond dat er ‘redelijke gronden’ waren om aan te nemen dat die gegevens ‘relevant’ waren voor een strafrechtelijk onderzoek. Om wat voor onderzoek het gaat, is niet duidelijk. [...]
[...] Wikileaks-related twitter accounts are sub-poenad, and twitter pretty much does the right thing [...]
Historische schande…
[...] she could equally have rejected Twitter's motion.) Having obtained permission, Twitter notified its users and promised to hand over nothing if they filed a motion to quash within ten days. That [...]
Congrats to Tunisia!
Obama and Biden couldn’t remove this dictator. Wikileaks, though, DID play a role!
Celebrate!
[...] she could equally have deserted Twitter’s motion.) Having performed permission, Twitter notified a users and betrothed to palm over zero if they filed a suit to stifle within 10 days. That is [...]
[...] successfully balked, those targeted were then given 10 days to take legal action. User @rop_g received the following email. Kessel, Jan-07 11:20 am (PST): Dear Twitter [...]
[...] par Twitter en ce qui concerne Bradley Manning, Birgitta Jonsdottir, Julian Assange, Rop Gongrijp (le mail de Twitter à ce dernier) et Jacob [...]
[...] ontving een brief van Twitter met de mededeling dat justitie informatie over hem wilde hebben. Dat schrijft Gonggrijp op zijn weblog. Naast Gonggrijp zijn ook de gegevens van onder andere Julian Assange, het [...]
[...] Zeit bekam der niederländische Hacker Rop Gonggrijp Post von Twitters Rechtsabteilung. Gonggrijp zitiert aus diesem Schreiben. Demnach erklärt der Vertreter der US-Firma, Twitter sei von einem US-Gericht [...]
[...] US-Justizministerium Zugriff auf alle Daten der Twitter-Accounts von Wikileaks, Jacob Appelbaum, Rop Gonggrijp, Bradley Manning, der isländischen Abgeordneten Birgitta Jonsdottir, die Wikileaks bei [...]
[...] in het private domein. Een sprekend voorbeeld is het opvragen van de twittergegevens van Rop Gonggrijp door de Amerikaanse overheid naar aanleiding van de [...]
[...] Instead, the company mounted a serious legal challenge to the Justice Department’s “secret orders” and pushed the envelope in interpreting what it could do to protect its subscribers’ information (McCullagh, 2011). In Twitter – Wikileaks Case #1, the social media site won a small victory by gaining the right to at least tell Jónsdóttir, Applebaum and Gongrijp that the DoJ was seeking information about their accounts (United States, 2010). They were given 10 days to respond before it was compelled to comply with the DoJ order. It also took the extra step of recommending that they seek legal help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a public interest law watchdog on all matters digital and about internet/cyberspace governance (a copy of Twitter’s letter to Gongrijp is available at Gongrijp, 2011). [...]
Hiya, I am really glad I’ve found this information. Nowadays bloggers publish just about gossips and web and this is really frustrating. A good website with exciting content, this is what I need. Thanks for keeping this web site, I’ll be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Can not find it.
[...] Swartz himself pointed out, this exchange also happened in the wake of news that the government had issued administrative subpoenas to Twitter–basically within a day of [...]