
Gmail may hand over IP addresses of journalists - kirubakaran
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Gmail_may_hand_over_IP_addresses_of_journalists
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tumult
Great, love being reminded my local court system are a bunch of shills.

However, before you burst into flames, note:

 _To comply with the law, unless you provide us with a copy of a motion to
quash the subpoena (or other formal objection filed in court) via email at
legal-support@google.com by 5pm Pacific Time on September 16, 2009, Google
will assume you do not have an objection to production of the requested
information and may provide responsive documents on this date._

So Google is notifying them, and basically telling the account holders to give
Google a reason to motion to quash the subpeona. Which is good.

Court system totally willing to issue subpoenas which would reveal identities
over what I'm assuming to be a civil suit filed by corrupt property developers
after they were exposed (please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Google not instantly turning over the data, and asking the account holders to
provide an objection.

Still less evil™

p.s. edit: I would also like to add that the Wikileaks editorial says:

 _According to the notifying letter from Google to the journal, Google intends
to hand over the requested records without defense and suggests that the
Journal file a counter-motion with the Santa-Clara court itself._

which I think is actually false, according to my reading of the notice Google
gave the account holders above. This would also indicate the headline is
inflammatory/linkbait..

~~~
anigbrowl
I find Wikileaks summaries are of extremely variable accuracy - they're well-
intentioned but often prefer the most extreme-sounding interpretation of a
document/story. I basically don't trust the summary pages at all, except in a
'why you might care!' way. Wikileaks itself, though, is pure gold.

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lupin_sansei
Isn't it part of common law that you have to "tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth?". If so, how can it be legal to withhold
information (read sources, ip addresses etc) while under examination in a
court?

~~~
jrockway
This expression is just convention, not something legally meaningful. The next
part of that expression is "so help you God", which you can't be legally
required to say. In many courts, the affirmation is just "Do you promise to
tell me the truth?"

As for "the whole truth", it's up to the other side's lawyer to ask you the
right questions; if you answer all the questions truthfully while you're on
the stand, that is your only legal obligation. (If the questions are directly
about your crime, you also have the right to refuse to answer.)

Anyway, if everyone were legally required to confess to crimes they committed,
nobody would do that, and then the crime would be not admitting to a crime. By
not admitting to that, ... the cycle continues, and with no evidence, there is
no case against you.

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jsm386
As a journalist, with sources to protect, working for a publication whose very
mission 'corruption fighting' is going to invite problems exactly like these,
shouldn't you be using something other than Gmail?

I've never needed something like this but a quick search
[http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=secure+anon...](http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=secure+anonymous+email&aq=0&aqi=g10&oq=secure+anony&fp=9733483af0cc9d26)
leads me to believe there is a better solution.

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onreact-com
Try this next time:

Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress & Tor

<http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/projects/guide/>

+

Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents

[http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/handbook_bloggers_cyberdissidents...](http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/handbook_bloggers_cyberdissidents-
GB.pdf)

~~~
restruct
But don't choose Gmail as your webmail provider?

~~~
mikeryan
I am not an expert in this.

But I think if you get a Gmail account with non identifiable information. Then
access Gmail through Tor (There's a Tor plugin for Firefox) you've done enough
to make it extremely hard to track you down.

~~~
jacquesm
You'd better make sure you do that from a 'virgin' machine then or your
cookies or other signature information will give you away in a heartbeat.

~~~
aarongough
Or my favourite: a virtual machine with a snapshot of it's state just after
the install of all your necessary programs, HDD set to read only (like you can
do in parallels) and used from there...

