Feds Demand '1.3 Million IP Addresses' Of Visitors To Trump Protest Website: Web hoster DreamHost says it has been asked to hand over more than 1.3 million IP addresses on�visitors to a site that helped organize anti-Trump protests earlier this year. It published a search warrant�Monday signed July 12th, in which a District of Colombia court said DreamHost had to hand over records from disruptj20.org covering "the individuals who participated, planned, organized, or incited the January 20 riot," Trump's inauguration day.
That data appears to include IP addresses, emails and physical addresses of the website owners, as well as similar details�on all users of the site, such as information about messages�submitted to the page and when they accesseddisruptj20.org. "The request from the [Department of Justice] demands that DreamHost hand over 1.3 million visitor IP addresses — in addition to contact information, email content, and photos of thousands of people — in an effort to determine who simply visited the website," wrote DreamHost. To be clear, that's 1.3 million IP addresses that hit the site, they're not all unique individuals, DreamHost confirmed to Forbes.
"That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution's First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind," the company added in its blog.
"This is, in our opinion, a strong example of investigatory overreach and a clear abuse of government authority."
That data appears to include IP addresses, emails and physical addresses of the website owners, as well as similar details�on all users of the site, such as information about messages�submitted to the page and when they accesseddisruptj20.org. "The request from the [Department of Justice] demands that DreamHost hand over 1.3 million visitor IP addresses — in addition to contact information, email content, and photos of thousands of people — in an effort to determine who simply visited the website," wrote DreamHost. To be clear, that's 1.3 million IP addresses that hit the site, they're not all unique individuals, DreamHost confirmed to Forbes.
"That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution's First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind," the company added in its blog.
"This is, in our opinion, a strong example of investigatory overreach and a clear abuse of government authority."