BOSTON -- The Raytheon employees were discussing business issues.
Manpower. Finance. Rumors of mergers and acquisitions. Things one might overhear at a
restaurant or on the golf course.
But the discussions weren't private. They occurred on an Internet forum
where anyone could read them.
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. It raises larger questions about freedom of speech on the
Web.
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 been hit with a Raytheon subpoena. A
message left Monday for a Microsoft spokesman was not immediately returned.
