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

[Skeeve Stevens]

FYI to the ISP community.

In Today's issue of Commsday International - July 10 2009, Page 2 and 3 sidebar

IP ADDRESSES ARE NOT PERSONAL OR PRIVATE

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.

The ruling underlines the lack of federal guidance on the issue, with US courts handing out a series of contradictory decisions piecemeal over the last few years. Just last month a New Jersey court determined surfers had a reasonable right to assume their IP addresses would be kept private and barred ISPs from disclosing them to third parties without a subpoena. The New York Times made headlines three years ago when it proved "anonymous" IP addresses provided by AOL would be tied to specific surfers.



--
Skeeve Stevens, CEO/Technical Director
eintellego Pty Ltd - The Networking Specialists
skeeve at eintellego.net / www.eintellego.net
Phone: 1300 753 383, Fax: (+612) 8572 9954
Cell +61 (0)414 753 383 / skype://skeeve
www.linkedin.com/in/skeeve ; facebook.com/eintellego
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