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Canning Span

Are there ways around legal privacy issues when trying to combat a spammer?

[December 7, 1999]

On the ISP-Tech list in August 1999, MJ asked about possible legal issues around releasing information on a known spammer:

"We recently had a spammer using our system to spam AOL heavily. Since we shut down his account, he is using another mail server that had an open relay to pass stuff through. They shut down the relay, but the guy is still hammering them with mail. This other mail server is asking us to release to them information on who this spammer is. I personally do not have a problem with giving it to them, but are there any legal issues behind releasing this info?"

Quite a few respondents urged MJ unequivocally to pass the information along.

[PJ didn't mince words] "Get him hard is my vote. I can't see why it would be illegal to help since he was involved in an illegal use of a system."

[AS proposed a drastic approach] "One of our domains fell victim to a spammer. The owner of the raped domain spared nothing to identify and expose the spammer—and, of course, he posted it on his website for all the world to see."

Other responses, while agreeing that the spammer should be stopped, tempered their advice with varying degrees of caution.

[TV wrote] "I would suggest a quiet, personal phone call to the other provider, nothing in writing."

[MS suggested a joint effort] "If he has caused problems for both of you in the past, work together to nail him and make him stop. I don't believe there are any legal issues when it comes to misusing someone's network."

The majority of respondents, however, advised against releasing the information.

[KM was emphatic] "There are definitely legal issues with releasing the information. Without a court order, giving up any personal information regarding a current or former customer is flirting with the wrong side of the law."

[LH was more legalistic] Our policy here is not to give out any customer information without a court order. If they show up with a supoena, we'll gladly give them what they want in the presence of our attorney. However, once you start giving customer information out, for any reason, without a court order, you're heading down a slippery slope.

[RG suggested a way around possible privacy issues] "You can give out public information such as name, address, phone number, email address and domain names."

Once the debate had cooled a bit, one respondent offered a piece of obvious (and sensible) advice.

[MV wrote] "Someone really needs to consult a lawyer. There are potential legal issues here; only a lawyer can tell you for sure."

—End