The U.S. Department of Justice last month served a search warrant on DreamHost, the company that hosts a website used to coordinate inauguration-day protests, asking for the IP addresses of the 1.3 million people who visited the site. DreamHost‘s general counsel, who publicly revealed the action yesterday, has called it “pure prosecutorial overreach … that anyone should be targeted simply for visiting a website.” He said the company gave the government “limited customer information about the owner of the website” [sic] back in January, but DOJ demanded the broader information in July. Various groups committed to protecting privacy and First Amendment rights have rallied behind DreamHost. DOJ has declined to comment.
An IP address doesn’t confirm a user’s identity, but it is an invaluable investigative tool. If DOJ has a legitimate reason to have that information on persons checking out the website — even if just out of curiosity — it hasn’t said so.