Off Topic but important.
AP Online Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Tuesday, April 6, 1999
Case Raises Online Privacy Concerns By TOM KIRCHOFER Associated Press Writer
BOSTON (AP) - It must have seemed like a perfectly anonymous place to
gripe about work: an Internet message board where employees could hide
behind code names as they complained about such topics as the company's
stock price and its chief executive.
But Raytheon Co. said the workers were also divulging company secrets by
discussing such matters as rumored mergers and acquisitions, impending
divestitures and possible defense contracts.
Raytheon got subpoenas forcing Yahoo! Inc., the forum operator, to help
pierce the anonymity the workers thought they enjoyed.
Yahoo! says it always complies with valid court orders, 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.
Raytheon earlier this year sued a total of 21 people for discussing
corporate business on the forum, one of many sites on the Internet that
offer places to talk about specific companies.
Some, if not all, of the defendants are Raytheon employees, although their
identities aren't all known.
Topics they discussed included the company's stock price and gripes about
the chief executive.
Chatters used aliases like "Rayman-mass" and "RaytheonVeteran" - names
they may have thought would protect their true identities.
When Raytheon filed the suit in February, it had only those online
handles. But armed with the subpoena, it went knocking on Yahoo!'s doors.
Diane Hunt, a Yahoo! spokeswoman wouldn't say exactly how the company
responded to the court orders, but she did say the company "attempts to
comply with validly issued subpoenas."
Hunt said people who use Yahoo! services should be aware that while it
won't sell or give away users' information, court orders are more serious.
"We notify the members in advance," Hunt said. "In the message board terms
and conditions, we make it clear."
The Boston Globe reported Monday that two of the lawsuit's targets had
left the company, apparently as a result of Raytheon's investigation.
Raytheon spokesman David Polk would not comment on the report, nor would
he say whether the company would terminate employees found to have divulged
information on the forum.
"We're not going to release information as it pertains to employees," Polk
said. "Each of these cases will be looked at on an individual basis."
The situation troubles Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center.
"Companies should not disclose such information, even in response to a
subpoena without some due process," he said.
Rotenberg said he would like to see Internet companies more aggressively
fight subpoenas requesting information on users.
"This is personal information that is being held in trust. There's a real
privacy issue there," he said.
An America Online spokesman confirmed that his company had also received a
court order commanding it to provide information on the Raytheon chatters.
Although the substance of the order couldn't be immediately confirmed, AOL
is the most popular provider of Internet accounts, so some of the chatters
could have their names registered with AOL.
AOL has a policy similar to Yahoo!'s, but Rich D'Amato said whenever AOL
receives such a subpoena in a civil case, it always notifies the member,
giving the person 14 days to try to quash the subpoena. Only after that time
has expired will the company turn over the information.
The Globe also reported that Microsoft had also been hit with a Raytheon
subpoena. A message left Monday for a Microsoft spokesman was not
immediately returned.
--------------------------------------------
The Wall Street Journal
Copyright (c) 1999, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Monday, April 5, 1999
Technology
Raytheon Employees Resign in Wake Of Lawsuit Protesting Internet Postings
By William M. Bulkeley
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
In a case that has highlighted issues of online privacy, at least two
Raytheon Co. employees who posted anonymous messages about the company on an
Internet message board have resigned, say people familiar with the matter.
Raytheon filed a lawsuit in February against 21 employees, claiming they
had posted "proprietary and confidential information" about the big defense
contractor via Yahoo! Inc., whose widely used Web pages include many
company- specific electronic message boards. The suit, filed in
Massachusetts Superior Court in Cambridge, identified the 21 by their
Internet pseudonyms, such as "Raytheonveteran," "Ditchraytheon" and
"Rayman-Mass."
Since filing the suit, Raytheon has been seeking the identities of
employees through subpoenas to Yahoo. Yahoo says it has been complying with
those subpoenas.
On Friday, a person familiar with the case confirmed that Mark Neuhausen,
a vice president in Raytheon's Arlington, Va., office, resigned last week.
Mr. Neuhausen posted messages under "RSC Deepthroat," one of the names cited
in the lawsuit, this person said. Mr. Neuhausen and his lawyer, Roger
Ampole, didn't return phone calls. Mr. Neuhausen's resignation was reported
in the Boston Herald.
Also last week, another person accused in the suit, who uses the name
"Winstoncar," said in a posting on a Yahoo message board that he had left
Raytheon. He couldn't be reached for comment and he didn't disclose his
identity. In his posting he wrote, "All I can say is, as of today, I no
longer work for Raytheon. Details of course cannot be released."
The message board, used by employees and investors, includes gossip and
criticism by anonymous participants. Raytheon claims in its suit that the
board also contained sensitive and confidential information such as bid
proposals, unreleased financial data and pending company divestitures. The
postings aren't always reliable. One said Raytheon would win a missile
contract, when the job actually went to Boeing Co. Another claimed Raytheon
would miss analysts' fourth-quarter 1998 earnings target of $1.08 a share,
when the company actually met that goal.
Electronic privacy experts say businesses have a right to protect trade
secrets and confidential information, but there is the danger that some
companies might file suits just to quell negative statements. "It certainly
can have a chilling effect," said Esther Dyson, editor of a trade newsletter
and former chair of the Electronic Freedom Foundation. "But if it's true
that they divulged proprietary information, then Raytheon has a legitimate
complaint."
Phyllis Piano, Raytheon's vice president of corporate communications,
said: "We've tried to convey something to employees. We encourage people to
air their views. But they can't cross the line and divulge proprietary
information."
A Yahoo spokeswoman said it is company policy to comply with subpoenas and
court orders, but she declined to say how many of the Raytheon employees the
company had been able to identify.
To users, Yahoo postings seem anonymous, since Yahoo! doesn't require
users to register by name, and it provides the message boards free. It often
doesn't know who its users are. However, under court order it provides
information on the Internet-service provider used by people who post
messages, and subsequent subpoenas to them can usually pinpoint the authors,
Internet-savvy lawyers say. |
