Subscriber information no longer private in Canada
I read this article at National Post recently, and as it doesn't seem to have flooded all over the other security blogs, I thought I'd link to it here. The article tells the story of a Canadian judge who ruled that "one's name and address or the name and address of your spouse are not biographical information one expects would be kept private from the state" in the light of a child exploitation investigation where the police requested an internet subscriber's name and address based on an IP address without a search warrant.
Somehow I'm not sure what to think about this. On one side, it seems scary that this information can be obtained without a warrant. But on the other hand, I also tend to agree with the arguments of one of the attorneys saying that "the matching of an IP address to a name and address is similar to using a phone book" to match phone numbers to names and addresses. I think people should begin to accept that the Internet is a public place. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't agree with getting any more information than a name and address, such as sniffing traffic or listing visited websites and the like, but matching names to numbers: I don't see the harm in that.
Somehow I'm not sure what to think about this. On one side, it seems scary that this information can be obtained without a warrant. But on the other hand, I also tend to agree with the arguments of one of the attorneys saying that "the matching of an IP address to a name and address is similar to using a phone book" to match phone numbers to names and addresses. I think people should begin to accept that the Internet is a public place. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't agree with getting any more information than a name and address, such as sniffing traffic or listing visited websites and the like, but matching names to numbers: I don't see the harm in that.
Labels: cybercrime
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