Constitutional Law

ACLU Appeals Decision Allowing Government to Collect Private Records of Twitter Users

By Ben Siracusa Hillman, Speech, Privacy and Technolo

Two weeks ago, we told you about a court decision that allows the government to collect the private records of three Twitter users as part of its investigation related to WikiLeaks. The decision also allows the government to keep secret what other services, if any, have been required to turn over information about the users.

Today, we filed our appeal of that decision to the United States District Court. (Because the decision was issued by a magistrate judge, we appeal to the district court rather than an appeals court).

Our appeal gives the district court the opportunity to decide our challenges from scratch. We hope that the district court will take this opportunity to vindicate our essential right to privacy in our internet communications, and to make public the court documents that remain secret.

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Full post as published by Blog of Rights on March 25, 2011 (boomark / email).