Natural News has an interesting story, “U.S. Government Sought Customer Book Purchasing Records from Amazon.com.” Recently unsealed court records reveal that, in 2006, federal prosecutors investigating a Madison, WI, official subpoenaed Amazon.com “for transaction records on anyone who had purchased books from him through Amazon Marketplace since 1999.” Those records would encompass 24,000 Amazon users.

“Amazon [...] has refused to identify any book buyers to the government, citing the buyers’ First Amendment right to maintain the privacy of their reading choices,” according to the November 2007 opinion (pdf) by Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker. Judge Crocker concluded that, “(1) customers who bought used books from [the official] through Amazon do have a cognizable First Amendment right; (2) this court must consider this right when determining whether to require Amazon to comply with the grand jury subpoena [….]” (more…)

In 1755, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Centuries later, we face numerous attacks on our privacy and civil rights, ostensibly for national security. Phone calls are tapped, e-mails are read, and individuals are tracked by video surveillance. We’re told that if you’re not for these invasive surveillance tactics, then you’re with the terrorists. PrivacyLives.com rejects such fear mongering. This site will chronicle and analyze these attacks and various defenses against them to show that privacy lives on, despite this onslaught. (more…)