Yahoo! hands over chat IDs

{snip}

Raytheon, claiming that its company secrets were being told to the world, got subpoenas forcing Yahoo!, the forum operator, to help pierce the anonymity the workers thought they enjoyed when they used computer "handles" in place of their real names.

Yahoo! complied and now two workers have reportedly resigned.

Privacy advocates said Monday the case is a clear illustration about how fragile anonymity is on the Internet.

{snip}

This caught my attention because I recently had a personal experience along the same lines. I was getting messages on my email address at my previous ISP (NOT Mindspring) that were obviously intended for some one else. After the first couple of them, I politely responded that they had a bad address, as there was no one here by that name. The messages sporadicaly continued. I ignored them. Then, I started getting messages saying "since you liked the last one so much, I signed you up for more email newsletters". Sigh. Finally, I sent a slightly more urgent message (ok, it wasn't all that nice...lol) for her to fix her address.

The next day, I came home from work, and checked my answering machine.

I didn't like the way you talked to my mother in that email. We'll be in touch. #&%#@!

Whoa! I have an unlisted number, and never have included my last name on my email header info. Had I pissed off some hacker? Nope. This jerk worked for my ISP. He went into the computer, and pulled up my information based on my email address. AND, he was stupid enough to call from work - leaving the ISP's number on my caller ID. To make a long story short, ISP's don't look kindly on employees calling and harassing customers.

I'm not sure if this little story has a point, but I thought you might find it interesting.

-- Online2Much (ready_for_y2k@mindspring.com), April 06, 1999

Answers

As I have said for a very long time.... You are never anonymous on the net. This just is yet another proof to that point.

-- (cannot-say@this.time), April 06, 1999.

One small consideration.......They have the ability to claim National Security, and sic the whole alphabet crew on whoever.....

Something about doing contracting and building stuff for the government....

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (reinzoo@en.com), April 06, 1999.