A judge just forced Twitter to hand over a bunch of info about three Wikileaks associates who used Twitter to communicate privately. The court says the Justice Department doesn't need a warrant to get a hold of such information.

seldo:

This is a big, big deal. Are your messages to each other on Facebook private? The government doesn’t think so. Nor are your DMs on Twitter. What about emails?

shortformblog:

The WikiLeaks associates — Jacob Appelbaum, Birgitta Jonsdottir and Rop Gonggrijp — “voluntarily chose to use Internet technology to communicate with Twitter and thereby consented to whatever disclosures would be necessary to complete their communications,” Judge [Liam] O’Grady wrote.

Is it possible that the law needs to change? The law at play here, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, took effect around 1986 — roughly a decade before the Internet came into wide use. The Justice Department argues against making a change like this, but the law should allow respect private communications on social networks. This case sets a dangerous precedent far beyond Wikileaks.