Glad I Am Not A Singnet Subscriber
Â
As most singaporeans have already know by now, the biggest news heating up the forums these days is Odex going after illegal downloaders of anime in singapore. After the capitulation of Singnet and Starhub, most people expect it was only a matter of time before Pacific Internet had to handover the list of suspected anime downloaders. But lo and behold, much to everyone surprise, the presiding judge in this instance, decided Odex had no right of civil action and that Pacific Internet was not required to disclose the identities of their customers.
Score 1 for Pacific Internet!!!
I am not here to defend the actions of the anime downloaders, but I just found it inexplicable how one of the largest and most powerful companies in singapore just folded like a cheap tent the minute someone presented them with a court order to disclose the identities of their customers.
“Noting that Singnet did not engage laywers to resist Odex’s application, Judge Lau raised several issuses that he felt were never fully argued before the court.”- www.todayonline.com 25th Auguest 07
I mean, wow, doesn’t that leave you speechless. Singnet did not even bothered to hire some 10 cents lawyer to at least check out the validity of Odex claims. Nope, they just rolled over and handed over the identities of their customers- no questions asked. You’d think maybe, just maybe the privacy of their customers might be worth the effort to at least hire a laywer. And its not like Singnet is some small time ISP strapped for cash.
Lest we forget, this is not the first demonstration of the scant respect singnet pays to the right of privacy of their customers. Many years ago, singnet was also caught secretly scanning the computers of their subscribers looking for a so-called virus. This only came to light after a law student made a police report and I think Singnet would have been quite happy to continue secretly scanning the computers of their subscribers if the law student had not made a police report. And only after they were caught did they made some lame assed apology for the intrusion of privacy. It might be forgivable the first time round, but to see it happen again is beyond reason. What does it take for Singnet to understand that their customers are entitled to some measure of privacy?
I am just glad I am not a Singnet subscriber. To see them place such little priority over the privacy of their customers is simply appalling and inexcusable- and not for the first time might I add. If Singnet is the last ISP in singapore, then I think it might be time for me to sign up for some knitting course.Â
15 Comments so far
This news itself sets PacNet different from others and I believe they themselves earned some respects from this Saga, whereas for Singnet, it is a big boo boo for their inaction.
Paddy
BAK2u
Singnet sucks leh, but they got a ‘Sing’ in their name so they got to exhibit the tutelage of ‘Kiasee’ of singapore. They also have master the power of ’siam-arrow’ and ‘cover-backside’, a powerful skill that many elites and lee-ders got nowadays
This only happened in SG… *sigh*
hope to see more soon!!
p.s: Missed your comics
hmm … was about to subscribe to SingTel’s 3-in-1, looks like they’re still a big f*cked-up corporation.
OK, settle. No SingNet liao (even though I’m not an anime downloader, or for that matter ANY file downloader. Won’t be surprised if they do that sort of voodoo on their own customers again.)
I didn’t know Singnet carried out a scanning exercise in the 1990s. The excuse they gave was so lame.
It’s no surprise that the police could not find any fault in the scanning exercise. They worked for the same government.
Seems like our Computer Misuse Act was powerless in this case and could not protect the rights and privacy of internet users.
First and foremost, Singnet is an ISP and as such I feel their first priority is always to protect the interests of their customers and safeguard their privacy. Its not that I support piracy, but there are already anti-piracy organisations out there whose job is to protect intellectual property rights. So its important to separate the two and in this instance I don’t feel its in Singnet place to hand over the identities of its customers without so much as an internal investigation all in the name of fighting piracy.
If you’re a subscriber, doesn’t it worry you that your ISP doesn’t give a shit about protecting your interests?
Score 1 for District Judge Justice Earnest Lau! And I ain’t surprised the judge presiding in SingNet’s case had ruled in favor of Odex – I personally know if you don’t even turn up or get a representative to attend a court case, it is ruled in favor of the other party anyway.
After all, the last guy I took to small claims courts got that sentence when he didn’t turn up. The judge was pretty annoyed at his lack of respect or contempt of the proceedings.
The singnet incident back then was when MHA and Singnet secretly did port scanning on over 200k singnet subscribers.
When they were caught red-handed, Singnet finally came out to the open to publish a news release stating that they were doing a “value-added service” for the customers by getting MHA to scan their ports without notice nor authorization by the users.
Following the public sentiment backlash, Singnet did some press release stating their commitment to the privacy of their customers and how very very important it is to them. From the earlier incident, and from this Odex incident we can tell for ourselves precisely how much Singnet cares about the privacy of their subscribers.
well, that scanning incident is certainly news to me, at any rate, it certainly looks like their commitment to protecting and valuing their customers’ privacy is just a load of hot air.
while some of us did good by raising the issue, how many among the rest of Singaporeans actually BOTHER that Singnet didnt respect our privacy?
I liken this to elections – complain, complain, complain…when it comes time to vote…
Is anyone taking Singnet to court? Is anyone raising awareness, beyond the blogosphere, that Singnet didnt protect your rights? Is anyone making sure that Singnet wont do it again?
A similar situation happened in HK, when the music industry wanted to get the names of people who illegally UPLOAD music for sharing. ALL THE SERVICE PROVIDERS protested and will not release any names unless ordered by the courts, some NGOs involved with civil rights and privacy raised hell, some MPs raised hell.
It took a major court order before they to finally release the name of one major perpertrator (whom they made a scapegoat of).
anyway – considering that HK is such a populated space, where if you sneeze, all your neighbours will know… i seem to think there’s more privacy and personal rights here in HK than Singapore ever will have.
Its as simple as voting with your wallet. For a company like singnet, nothing will hurt them more than the bottomline. The fact that they’ve yet to release any statement to the public for damage control probably shoulds how little they care about public sentiments.
what will make them wake up, and really think about their consumers (and not just take the easy way out), is someone who take them to task.
push them to change their policy towards respecting the rights of their customers. if we want to wait for IDA, it wont happen.
i dont know whether there’s any NGO that looks at protecting privacy rights of singaporeans.
know of any? i’ll write to them to push this agenda. if we can help in making Singnet become a better company, why not?
Taking Singnet to task isn’t going to happen. Starhub tried that but did it work?
Want to take a company with that “Sing” trademark to task? I think I can do better trying to losing some weight.
insanepoly.com[...] Odex loses case against Pacnet. Singnet’s no-action questioned. Siew Kum Hong: ODEX Pte Ltd v Pacific Internet Limited http://siewkumhong.blogspot.com/2007/08/odex-pte-ltd-v-pacific-internet-limited.html Insanepoly: Glad I Am Not A Singnet Subscriber http://www.insanepoly.com/blog/?p=366 [...]
Singet…Singtel…one and same.
I know of a case where this person was incorrectly billed continuously for years – they had somehow listed the home phone as a commercial site rather than residential – and when the person called up to clarify and seek recourse, the response was akin to, first, a long, clueless silence and then, after several months, an abrupt “nah..here’s the money we took from you”.
When asked for an explanation/apology (yes, some of us can be that stupid to push their luck and ask for one) he got ignored.
The funny thing is if someone is behind on his/her bills you’ll get piled with red slips threatening to cut off the service.