A Californian judge has ordered GeoCities, an internet
publishing community owned by Yahoo! Inc. that lets members set up
free sites, to turn over to Apple Computer Inc. personal
information on a customer who is alleged to be responsible for
posting trade secrets on a web site.
GeoCities was ordered to disclose the records on “worker bee”,
the pseudonym used by the individual who posted photos and
information about Apple’s new computer mouse and dual-processor
PowerMacs prior to their unveiling at the Macworld trade show last
month.
Apple is wanting the name, e-mail and street address, phone number
and internet protocol address of “worker bee”.
In April this year, Yahoo! amended its privacy policy to provide
information on users only if legally compelled to do so. It said it
would notify members of any court orders and give them 15 days to
fight any such orders before making disclosure. The change follows
criticism from privacy groups of previous practices of releasing
personal information in the face of a threat of legal action.
Apple believes that the trade secrets could have been leaked by
one of its employees in breach of a confidentiality agreement.
