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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 dot 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 -- NOC, NOC, who's
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