31 Online newspaper rats visitor out to secret services

In a rather suprising move, online Romanian newspaper Cotidianul ran a newspiece in which they actually boasted about tracking down a visitor and causing him to get fired, as a consequence of his comments.

Note: The article is in Romanian. And you’re going to need JavaScript if you want to see more than a blank page. Yes, they suck that much, from a webdev point of view. Just don’t get me started on that aspect, shall we.

Getting back to the issue at hand: many Romanian online newspapers allow visitors to post comments to the articles they run online. If the newspaper has a decent popularity, commenting soon becomes popular as well. There are regulars who post frequently. Perhaps there is a full-fledged forum associated with the newspaper. This is no different from online magazines and newspapers in any part of the world.

What is apparently different around here is the risks you take by engaging in such activity. As described in the article, the visitor with the nickname “Bibi” used to be just another regular. He stood apart due to his pro-opposition stance and numerous critics to the current government and President of Romania. He was also described as “well informed, posessing manipulation skills and writing talent.”

A forum moderator going by the nickname “Corzo” got curious at some point and ran some checks on the IP’s that Bibi used to post to the forum. It became apparent that he had some relation with the STS (Special Telecommunication Service). So far, so good.

Now it gets interesting. Bibi apparently used to be rather caustic in his replies to other visitors’ comments, which supposedly caused them to grow somewhat irritated. What broke the camel’s back was the time when Bibi predicted that Elena Udrea (former spokeswoman for the President) would quit her job (due to another fine scandal), 36 hours in advance of it actually happening.

It was reasonable to assume that, given the circumstancial evidence, Bibi was a STS employee leaking information related to the President’s cabinet. But only if you had the above piece of information, tying Bibi to the STS.

It’s not very clear how the situation developed next. Corzo actually makes a clear case for the right to privacy, which in his opinion stands above even leaking secret information which could negatively affect state security:

“Even at that point, his constitutional rights remained sacred. Except that the wrong people caught wind of this and bibi got fired. Or sacrificed… He either went beyond his duty, or he deconspired himself.”

“Got wind of this” is, of course, very evasive. Short of someone actually saying “Bibi works for STS” at some point I can’t see how this could have just happened. They don’t publish visitors’ IP addresses in clear over there.

And unfortunately, as righteous as he seems, it doesn’t matter much, in restrospective, since the whole thing was apparently set in motion by the same Corzo, who by his own admission, at some point, accused Bibi on the forum of working for a secret agency.

And then the ball started rolling. According to Cotidianul’s own article they were the ones that actually tipped off the STS:

Once Bibi’s “workplace” was discovered, we requested explanations from STS, to determine whether their employee works by himself or under orders. The STS commandment told us that they started an investigation into the matter, which Bibi also found out about: he erased most of his forum messages and asked the Cotidianul webmaster to erase those that couldn’t be removed remotely. Some of the messages were kept, however.

Which raises a lot of questions. As Corzo himself admits, Bibi had followed the Cotidianul terms of use.

Cotidianul specifically states that they will never divulge the identity of their visitors if “they are put in danger by the information they post”. They also take it upon themselves to destroy all the personal data of a visitor if specifically asked so by him. By their own admission they were asked to do so and failed to comply.

True, the disclaimer also states that posting materials for which the user doesn’t have the approval of the rightful owner is a breach of the terms of use, but they also state that they will proceed to remove such materials from the site, not take “other” actions.

It’s somewhat ironic that section 7 in that document even takes the time to mention that Cotidianul is bound by Law 677/2001 (Romanian), regarding the protection of personal data (not that they had to say it, they were bound by it anyway because they collect personal data).

Given all this, it’s pretty obvious to me that at some point someone decided that privacy is less important than what they took it upon themselves to consider state secrets (yes, Elena Udrea is that important :roll:), in direct breach of Cotidianul’s own terms of use and the Romanian privacy law. I Am Not A Lawyer, but I still can’t help but catch distinct whiff of a large rodent.

What happened to Bibi? Rumor has it he was eventually discovered by STS and would have faced disciplinary action, but he got off by requesting to be taken off active duty and moved into the reserves. Whether it’s true or just some sort of cover-up, it’s not evident.

Which leaves the rest of us with various things to ponder upon. What is your privacy worth in Romania if a national newspaper can afford to disregard law and their own terms of use in such a casual manner? Would you still frequent a forum which did this? Was it just a stupid initiative from the part of an overzealous newspaper employee, or did important political personnae feel annoyed by Bibi’s comments (knowing or not who he was) and ordered the disclosure?

And, finally, how dumb can you be to actually take pride in such an obvious breach of law and privacy? Especially when you’re part of a press trust which is often involved in freedom of speech campaigns, and which has recently issued a joint statement condemning the journalists involved in the Grozea case (where Antena 1 TV station people gained the confidence of a suspect only to eventually turn him over to the police.)