Judge Rules That Government Can Force Glassdoor To Unmask Anonymous Users Online (arstechnica.com)

pogopop77 shares a report from Ars Technica: An appeals court will soon decide whether the U.S. government can unmask anonymous users of Glassdoor -- and the entire proceeding is set to happen in secret. Federal investigators sent a subpoena asking for the identities of more than 100 anonymous users of the business-review site Glassdoor, who apparently posted reviews of a company that's under investigation for potential fraud related to its contracting practices. The government later scaled back its demand to just eight users. Prosecutors believe these eight Glassdoor users are "third-party witnesses to certain business practices relevant to [the] investigation." The name of the company under investigation is redacted from all public briefs. Glassdoor made a compromise proposal to the government: it would notify the users in question about the government's subpoena and then provide identifying information about users who were willing to participate. The government rejected that idea. At that point, Glassdoor lawyered up and headed to court, seeking to have the subpoena thrown out. Lawyers for Glassdoor argued that its users have a First Amendment right to speak anonymously. While the company has "no desire to interfere" with the investigation, if its users were forcibly identified, the investigation "could have a chilling effect on both Glassdoor's reviewers' and readers' willingness to use glassdoor.com," states Glassdoor's motion (PDF). The government opposed the motion, though, and prevailed in district court.

Comments

Teach your children

[fustakrakich]

Never put your real name on the internet. Use burner accounts for everything.

Re:Teach your children

[BitterOak]

Never put your real name on the internet. Use burner accounts for everything.

If these users had used their real names, they would not be "anonymous users". The court ruled they can be unmasked anyway.

Re:Teach your children

[fustakrakich]

If they were actually anonymous users, the company won't be able to unmask them. Most likely they were registered users that posted anonymously. And if they used their real names, they will get burnt.

Anonymity

[puddingebola]

Do you have a right to anonymity online? When we lived in the physical world instead of the virtual one, it was possible to express opinions and leak information through a media that was made of paper. Now, the online world provides all kinds of avenues to provide confidential information and criticism, but if the courts make it so protections don't apply online, then I guess people will have to return to the traditional methods.

Re:Anonymity

[Tony Isaac]

Anonymity was never really possible offline either. Nor was it ever protected by the Constitution. What the Constitution does protect, is your right to criticize the government, even if you do not try to hide your identity. Taking advantage of this freedom does not guarantee the lack of consequences. It only guarantees that you can't be punished by the law for stating your mind.

Re:Anonymity

[Motherfucking Shit]

Yes.

By the by, most terrorists are already known to law enforcement by the time they do whatever it is they're going to do. How many times have we heard "the FBI had previously investigated the suspect" or "British counter-terror officials had been monitoring the attacker for several years?" Anonymity isn't really the issue, and even if it were, I'm not going to live my life afraid of terrorists.

Re:This is a tough one

[sheramil]

What I don't understand is why the Glassdoor posters must be revealed but the name of the company is a secret. Have we entered into an alternate universe where corporations have a higher level of rights than humans?

Not at all. We are still in the ordinary, everyday quotidian universe. Where corporations have a higher level of rights than humans.