IP addresses don’t identify people
p2pnet news view P2P:- A federal judge in Seattle has ruled IP addresses aren’t personal information.
Rather, an IP address, “identifies a computer,” US district court judge Richard Jones has decided.
His ruling followed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft, “stemming from an update that automatically installed new anti-piracy software,” says Wendy Davis in Online Media Daily.
Consumers alleged Microsoft violated its user agreement by collecting IP addresses in the course of the updates, says the story, continuing:
“The consumers argued that Microsoft’s user agreement only allowed the company to collect information that does not personally identify users. Microsoft argued that IP addresses do not identify users because the addresses don’t include people’s names or addresses. The company also said that it did not combine IP addresses with other information that could link them to individuals.”
But, “Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, points out that the European Union considers IP addresses to be personal information,” says Davis, going on »»»
Last year, the EU said that search engines should expunge users’ IP addresses as soon as possible.
Additionally, a court in New Jersey ruled last year that Internet service providers can’t disclose users’ IP addresses without a subpoena, on the theory that people expect their IP addresses will be kept private.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center’s Marc Rotenberg criticizes the Microsoft ruling as “a silly decision,” says Davis.
“The judge didn’t understand the significance of the IP address or the reason that it was collected,” says Online Media Daily.
Rotenberg adds judge Jones, “prematurely dismissed the case, arguing that more facts were needed to determine whether IP addresses were personally identifiable”.
(Cheers, surfer)
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Online Media Daily – Court: IP Addresses Are Not ‘Personally Identifiable’ Information, July 6, 2009
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July 9th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Interesting, so when they require you to REGISTER with PERSONAL info using YOUR computer which of course lets M$ know your IP/MAC and hardware serial number, and Windows serial number, they keep that information in a separate database?
Bullshit!
When they update your system they have to know that you have a legitimate copy of Windows, unless your hacked version is damn good.
M$ has all the personal detail once you register, that goes for Adobe, nVidia, etc… any one who requires you to register their product for a product key or activation has your personal information (that you provided which could be bogus I suppose) combined with your MAC/IP/serial info.
July 9th, 2009 at 10:43 am
A federal ruling like this, could blow the big four apart. This might be a Godsend.
July 9th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Actually Robert, I have been spoofing my Mac address for about 10 years for exactly that reason.
Also HASH files will accept spoofed MAC addresses. Just a comment to the clue crew.
July 9th, 2009 at 10:59 am
I guess phone numbers aren’t personally identifiable either then. *rolls eyes*
July 9th, 2009 at 11:19 am
“IP addresses don’t identify people”
Deu!
July 9th, 2009 at 11:20 am
“I guess phone numbers aren’t personally identifiable either then.”
Then my street address and social security number and passwords next to my name is not personal information and thus cannot represent any potential fraud/theft damage or harm to myself? Nonsense.
Then again, thinking about the file sharing legal extorsions, a street address next to my names does not mean that if a criminal act was committed at that address any specific individual is the one who committed the crime.
To resume, a fixed (if such a thing exists) IP address may be personal information, but by itself cannot be used to identify a person who did something at that IP address. Ditto with a telephone number.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:24 am
“IP addresses don’t identify people”
Curious. When the RIAA sue people their IP adress is used to identify them although I don’t believe it is a relable way to id people. Double standard there?
Corporations are slowly destroying the word for profit and we must stop this.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
“Corporations are slowly destroying the word for profit and we must stop this”
Actually people do it to themselves(sp?) w/o the need of corps. If it wasn’ for corps you wouldn’t be able to read this article. Use common sense. If you don’t want MS snooping on you use Auto Patcher. If you don’t want your IP in a swarm use a seedbox. It’s not that hard.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
This is pretty funny. I have no doubt that if the shoe was on the other foot and Microsoft was suing people for using pirated copies of Windows, they would be arguing that IP addresses ARE personably identifiable. So the light at the end of the tunnel appears to be that if you give the industry enough rope, they’ll inevitably hang themselves with it lol.
My ISP uses DNS and used to rotate IP addresses among users quite frequently. My guess is that they wanted to prevent users from running any kind of server (HTTP, FTP, etc) which I believe is also in their ToS. Over the past two years I’ve noticed they rotate IP addresses a lot less. I can’t even release/renew anymore if I want a new IP address. Thankfully I use a router which has the ability to change it’s public MAC address. I’ve discovered through experimentation that the only way I can get a new address nowadays is if I release my current IP, immediately turn off the modem, change the public MAC address, then wait a few hours (the longer, the better). When I turn the modem back on I will have a new IP address. If I don’t change the MAC address, I’ll just get my old address back (which hints to the fact they may be keeping tabs on file sharers just in case). Occasionally I’ll get one that has a ton incoming connections, which I figure is either because the previous owner of that IP was being hit with a DoS attack, or more likely was using a P2P application, in which case I’ll try to force another IP address change. After all, I don’t want to end up in court for someone elses sharing. I also worry for the person who gets my old IP address, but what can one do?
July 9th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
But isn’t this a “good” thing. Doesn’t this mean that having an ip adress is not enough to get a conviction in piracy cases? Sort of having a security cam recording, but where the image is black.
July 10th, 2009 at 6:43 am
The ruling is okay as IP addresses only give information about the PC which is quite legitimate. There are no personal information shared through IP addresses.
Tony Smith
July 10th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Still can’t tell who’s typing at the keyboard, IP address or no IP address.