|
An Indian man has spent 50 days in prison after his Internet service wrongly accused him of posting images that insulted a historical figure. Police swooped on the home of Lakshmana Kailash K, a 26 year old technology worker, after offensive pictures appeared on Orkut, a social networking site run by Google. The images depicted Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the 17th century founder of India's Maratha empire. Officials asked Google to hand over the IP address of the poster, then checked with ISP Airtel to find the person behind that address. Airtel incorrectly told them it belonged to Kailash. He was then arrested and not released until Saturday, which some sources claim was three weeks after police found the real culprits. (Source: The Register)
The blame game is already underway. Netaji Shinde, the Assistant Commissioner of Police responsible for the arrest, told local media "We did our investigations on the IP address provided to us by Airtel. It is not our fault and Lakshmana should take Airtel to court and not us." A Google spokesperson said the company would only breach customer privacy when legally required. "In compliance with Indian legal process, we provided Indian law enforcement authorities with IP address information of an Orkut user" Airtel admitted to its mistake, with a spokesman saying the company was "deeply distressed by the severe inconvenience caused to the customer." (Source:Monstersandcritics.com) CNET writer Chris Soghoian says the case shows why Internet users in countries with tough censorship laws should consider using 'anonymizing' web proxies such as Tor. These allow users to make posts such as blogs without being traced by authorities. Unfortunately for Mr Kailash, his case has come too soon to be covered by a proposed law which would ban any US company such as Google from providing such details. The Global Online Freedom Act would make it illegal to hand over identifying information to a foreign official unless the Department of Justice deems it part of legitimate law enforcement. However, the act remains in the congressional committee stage. (Source: CNET) Until then, it seems even high-tech law enforcement can be plagued by human error.
-- Related newsletter articles:
2007/08/20 Yahoo Trumps Google (google)
2007/07/04 Mr Google Goes to Washington (google)
2007/07/17 Google Helps Robbers Nab $12,000 (google)
2007/08/23 Google Enters the World of Television (google)
2007/07/06 Google Earth: A Universal Security Hazard? (google)
2007/10/03 Microsoft Quadruples Search Power (google)
2007/11/07 Gphone: Google Opts for Software Over Hardware (google)
2007/08/10 Google and Apple Weigh In on Patent Issues (google)
2007/07/30 Google Competitor On the Way? (google)
2007/08/22 Microsoft and Google Look to Change Health Care (google)
2007/07/19 Google Sued for Deception (google)
2007/09/12 Google Earth: Can it Find You? (google)
2007/07/09 Google Apologizes for Sicko Blog Post (google)
2007/09/26 Who'll Take Down MS Office? (google)
2007/09/25 Share your Stuff with Google Shared Stuff (google)
2007/09/28 Microsoft and Google Battle for Facebook (google)
2007/08/16 Keeping Everyone Honest on Google News (google)
2007/09/06 Microsoft Hoping To "Cloud" The Competition (google)
2007/07/12 Google Loses the Name Game (google)
2007/09/21 Presenting Google "Presentations" (google)
2007/08/02 Microsoft Diggs Digg (google)
2007/10/29 Maybe Bill Gates Will Be Your Facebook Friend (google)
-- Recent articles (from all channels): 2008/05/12 Today in History: for Monday, May 12, 2008
2008/05/12 [ShellX 20080512]: 'Remote Manager', and 'Cyber Bandwidth ...
2008/05/12 Video Gaming Trade Group Struggling
2008/05/12 T-Mobile Finally Joins 3G Phone Race
2008/05/12 Apple Slammed by Environment Watchdog
2008/05/09 [ShellX 20080509]: 'Advanced Run', and 'Diver Windows Manager'
2008/05/09 Texas Refuses Facebook Friend Request
2008/05/09 Photo-Enforcement Technology Replaces Officers On Patrol
2008/05/09 Cuban Government Says 'Ok Computer'
2008/05/09 Excel Can E-Mail Your Weekly Reports For You!
2008/05/08 [ShellX 20080508]: 'Shell Enhancer', and 'Lansweeper'
2008/05/08 Xobni: MS Outlook Social Networking Technology for your Inbox
2008/05/08 Music Companies Jump on GTA IV Bandwagon
2008/05/08 Fascinating: Memristor to replace Binary
2008/05/08 Adobe Hopes To Make Flash Master Of The (Mobile) Universe
2008/05/08 Spiffy Envelopes and Labels in MS Word
2008/05/07 [ShellX 20080507]: 'Winbin2iso', and 'Loop Typer'
2008/05/07 Yahoo Adds Security Warnings To Search Results
2008/05/07 Apple to Lose Money on iTunes Movie Releases
2008/05/07 Amazon.com takes New York Tax to Court
2008/05/07 Need Glasses for the Slide Sorter View in MS PowerPoint?
2008/05/07 After Winning The DVD Format War, Blu-Ray Sales Tank
2008/05/06 [ShellX 20080506]: 'Visual Basic 6.0 Portable', and 'Double-...
2008/05/06 Yahoo Outsources to Jajah
2008/05/06 New HP Circuit Could Change Technology Forever
2008/05/06 Movie Downloads To Match DVD Release Dates
2008/05/06 Microsoft Ends Yahoo Bid
2008/05/05 [ShellX 20080505]: 'Ie7 Pro', and 'Desktop Ok'
2008/05/05 The WB Network Hops Online
2008/05/05 Microsoft Slashes Price of Xbox 360 Overseas
2008/05/05 Google CEO Wants YouTube to Take More of Your Money
|
