Warrantless searches of MySpace Yahoo and AT&T

[anonymous01201]

Summary
Email from Mike Duffey, Special Agent, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Computer Crime Center, to the ICAC Task Force mailing list, describing the ease with which he obtained a suspect's information from MySpace (within 20 minutes), and the technicalities he had trying to get similar information from Yahoo and AT&T when claiming "exigent circumstances".


Source:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Email_from_Special_Agent_Mike_Duffey_on_warrantles s_searches_of_MySpace%2C_Yahoo_and_ATT%2C_June_200 9

[thomps1d]

Summary
Email from Mike Duffey, Special Agent, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Computer Crime Center, to the ICAC Task Force mailing list, describing the ease with which he obtained a suspect's information from MySpace (within 20 minutes), and the technicalities he had trying to get similar information from Yahoo and AT&T when claiming "exigent circumstances".


Source:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Email_from_Special_Agent_Mike_Duffey_on_warrantles s_searches_of_MySpace%2C_Yahoo_and_ATT%2C_June_200 9

It doesn't surprise me that it took MySpace so little time to bend over to a LEO's request - sites like that are so afraid of negative press attention that if they even smell a situation that looks like it could make headlines, they rush to deliver anything that would make them look good in the eyes of the press.

This tendency, of course, is easily abused by anyone with the desire to appear to be a LEO who wants to snag some personal information on a site's user...

It actually surprises me that Yahoo and AT&T (especially the latter) didn't acquiesce more easily...AT&T generally fellates law enforcement so much that they'd hand over their own mothers if law enforcement even hinted they'd want such a thing. However, I don't think it's necessarily good news for anyone who values privacy - I think the request just got thrown into a bureaucratic cycle.