Iceland Officials Ask US To Explain Why It’s Trying To Get Lawmaker’s Twitter Info
[Via Techdirt]
On Friday, we noted that US officials had sent a court order (not a subpoena, apparently) to Twitter, asking for info from a few accounts that had some association with Wikileaks, including that of Icelandic lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir. Apparently, Icelandic officials are not too happy about this. They’ve asked the US ambassador to Iceland to explain the reasoning for this:
“(It is) very serious that a foreign state, the United States, demands such personal information of an Icelandic person, an elected official,” Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson told Icelandic broadcaster RUV.
“This is even more serious when put (in) perspective and concerns freedom of speech and people’s freedom in general,” he added.
Of course, we might not find out what was said until Wikileaks (or some other operation) leaks a new batch of State Department cables a few years down the road…
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We only know about this because Twitter pushed back against the court order and publicized it. I wonder if Facebook received such an order and just followed it without letting its users know?
A Man With A Ph.D. 
I am glad that you guys are posting these items. I had no idea that the feds were able to get all that info about me!
They have pretty much been able to since 9/11. Supposedly, they can only capture the email headings – from, to, subject – and not the text. Similarly with phones – phone number called and time of the call but no content without a warrant. Of course, they can get the warrant something like 72 hours AFTER the tap, making it easy to just listen and then only go after the criminal talk.