It’s not just the NSA that’s collecting massive amounts of personal data with judicial approval. In a ruling publicized by EarthRights International, a federal judge in New York approved a subpoena by Chevron to obtain any documents Microsoft has related to the identity of 30 anonymous individuals allegedly of interest in the litigation, including every IP address over a period of nine years.
The case involves an $18.2 billion judgment against Chevron in an Ecuador court, for massive environmental contamination from oil drilling. The Ecuadorian court found that Chevron had dumped toxic waste into Amazon waterways used by indigenous groups for drinking water and caused massive harm to the rainforest. Chevron responded by filing a lawsuit in U.S. court alleging that the plaintiffs engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the company.
As part of this lawsuit, Chevron has subpoenaed Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo to request all information related to the email addresses of more than 100 advocates, journalists, lawyers, and others. These individuals are not parties to the suit, but Chevron alleges that they are involved directly or indirectly in the litigation, and may have been outspoken critics of Chevron’s conduct. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan explains the scope of what Chevron was seeking from Microsoft:
To summarize, if Microsoft still has and were to produce the requested information, Chevron would learn the IP address associated with every login for every account over a nine-year period. Chevron could identify the countries, states, or even cities where the users logged into accounts, and perhaps, in some instances, could determine the actual building addresses.
All your logins are belong to us
The audacity of this lawsuit is breathtaking! The case started in the US federal courts and was kicked out on Chevron’s claim that the appropriate forum was the Ecuadoran court system. Chevron was betting that it could own the process down there. It didn’t work and a large damages verdict resulted. Now they are back in the US federal courts with a straight-faced collateral attack on the Ecuadoran verdict. If an individual tried this the action would be dismissed with sanctions.
“It’s good to be King.” This is all about profits. And power. Those with it are not going to give it up willingly. Owning the entire system sure makes it easier to get it over on us “little people”though.
Also, this is a Corporatist state, so it’s fitting that a Big Corporation figures it can use the spying resources of the NSA for its own profit objectives and protection.
Right? Right, Barry?
BTW, since this collection of phone calls has been going longer than we know — or maybe even Snowden knows — it makes me wonder just how fully controlled our political reps actually are by the PTB’s and Big Corporations.
Serious curiosity.