Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: Internet privacy

The first place to look for guidance here is your contract with the ISP or email service. These agreements often promise that your confidential info will not be revealed to anyone without a valid subpoena, but I don't know if such promises are legally required.

Assuming your contract promises your privacy, the ISP could be sued for breach of privacy if it reveals your name. If an employee does this without authorization the ISP will claim not to be at fault, but this defense might not hold up and the ISP could still be liable for negligence or some other theory.

Revealing information, however, is certainly not stalking, nor is it a hate crime. The people who get the information might use it in a way that amounts to stalking, but the ISP is not likely to be criminally or civilly liable for this. As to hate crimes, they are typically criminal offenses directed at a person due to his/her religion, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation and so on. Even if we assume that one of these folks harms you because of your views on abortion, such an act would probably not be a hate crime. Of course, it would probably qualify as some other form of crime.

The ISP will probably not be liable for the acts of these other people unless, at the time it provides the info, the ISP should have understood the likley outcome of giving away the information. Thus, if these people's friends don't know that you've been threatened, they may not be aware of the likley outcome and they and the ISP will probably not be held liable.

Your situation is a bit complicated and you haven't provided as much information as I would have wanted, so please understand that my answer might be different if I knew more.

Re: Internet privacy

If you are asking whether your Internet Service Provider can give out your real name to "friends" of the system administrator, then the answer is that it depends upon your service agreement.

If you are worried about being discovered, you might consider using an anonymous remailer.

Take a look at my Internet Privacy Law or email me for more info: http://www.netatty.com/privacy.html