[AusNOG] News - US Federal Judge - IP Addresses are Not Personal or Private Information

[John Ferlito]

On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 10:26:52AM +1000, Skeeve Stevens wrote:
> A US federal judge has ruled IP addresses do not constitute personal information, establishing a legal precedent that could radically alter Internet privacy norms.
> 
> Presiding over a class action lawsuit against Microsoft, US District Court judge Richard Jones defended the company's collection of customers' IP addresses during software updates as fair and reasonable despite a user agreement promising not to hoover up identifying data.
> 
> "In order for 'personally identifiable information' to be personally identifiable, it must identify a person. But an IP address identifies a computer," Jones wrote in a dismissal.
> 

Which seems a bit strange since using the same thinking you could
argue that your address isn't personally identifiable information
since it identifies a house not a person.

Cheers,
John

--
John
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