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09 Oct 08 Dutch court rules that Google has to provide Gmail user details of spy-box to iMerge.nl
PRESS RELEASE
Dutch court rules that Google has to provide Gmail user details of spy-box.
Amsterdam, October 20 2008: The appropriate Dutch court in Amsterdam sustained the claim of iMerge.nl against Google Inc. that the user details of spy-box alfaiscool2002@gmail.com should be disclosed to iMerge. The Gmail account was used for business espionage and privacy violations. The ruling got the headlines of the main Dutch newspapers, NRC en Telegraaf.nl.
Immediately after the ruling, Google has provided the required data, including a list of used IP addresses to access the Gmail account. This revealed that the suspect had used -among others- the network of his current employer to access the Gmail account, but also had been abusing a private ISP account. Further investigations are conducted in co-operation with the respective employer and ISP.
The suspect had, after hacking the computer network of one of the daughtercompanies of iMerge.nl, created an illegal forward to alfaiscool2002@gmail.com on the email address of on of the board members of the respective daughter company. This enabled him to spy on personal and business conversations. The suspect used to anonymously harass the board member and his wife, a.o. with private love letters.
Mark Meijjer, the involved atorney of iMerge, thinks it is ?surprising how easy it is to harrass innocent people with anonymous (Gmail) accounts. The evrdict shows that US based Google Inc. is willing to comply to Dutch law, and that the privacy of a victim 'overrules' the privacy of the person who did wrong. As it should be.
About iMerge BV, see http://www.imerge.nl/
iMerge is an incubator in the area of ebusiness, and is active since 1999. iMerge.nl participates in a number of international companies in the areas of e-retail, ecommerce facilities, product content, hosting, and software development.
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