Friday 16 May 2014

Website rejects demands to identify blogger

Iranian cyber police have been blocked in their attempts to identify a blogger after a blog-hosting service in the country declined to disclose private information concerning one of its users.

Fata, Iran's cyber police, wrote to Tehran-based IT firm Bayan earlier in May requesting the log records for a blogger using the service.

Bayan refused, claiming that the information could not be shared under Iran's own cyberspace laws which provide a right to privacy, and said the request could only be granted if it came through a judiciary court.

Bayan has since published the dialogue with Fata online, with the blogger's name redacted, prompting praise from Iranian web users who see it as a rare attempt to uphold citizens' rights.

Responding to Fata's request for the information Bayan's Ali Ghadiri wrote that for them to be able to disclose the information "someone should file a suit and a court case should be opened. Protecting people's privacy is one of the main principles of their security on the web."

London-based Iranian web researcher Amin Sabeti pointed to the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance revelations as the reason behind the bold approach, saying, "This is a positive step. I think the NSA revelations have influenced people in Iran too and I can't rule out that they might have taken a different approach had we not seen the outrage about GCHQ and NSA surveillance."

WENN.com




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