Your Favorite Internet App Doesn't Come with Privacy Rights

Judge ruled against me on standing, on intervention, and on the subpoena. So uh Twitter is compelled to hand over @destructuremal’s tweets

— Malcolm Harris (@BigMeanInternet) April 23, 2012

In the strange case of the Manhattan D.A. subpoenaing Occupy Wall Street arrestees’ Twitters, so far we’ve come to a place where the state can request copies of three months of the things that people have published on the Internet. That seems… reasonable! Not very chilling! (The Internet being the Internet and all!) What is bizarre is to see the D.A. prepare such a labor-intensive assault in the matter of a violation — these charges aren’t even misdemeanors. According to one reader, the “accompanying information” requested by the City in the subpoena includes direct messages, which is an entirely different kettle of fish from things published publicly on Twitter. But no one else has claimed this; Harris’ lawyer has instead gone to bat on the privacy of time and location data, which he is saying is the equivalent of GPS surveillance. (Hmm.) Helpful reminder: don’t put things on free services of the Internet ever, none of those methods of communication actually belong to you.