[gaucho]

And any company will turn over credit card transaction info with a court order -- how do you think they found those two kidnapped children in Florida yesterday?

That's the key phrase - with a court order. EBay will gladly provide this information to ANY LEO who simply faxes the request to them without a court order. If they did this with a court order I would have no problem with it.

[longtermmemmory]

I agree. Disclosure should always be with a court order. Otherwise this is wide open to real abuse. What about an officer getting a divorce. (men AND women can go nuts during divorce discovery, not to mention "setup" purchases. saw a case where the wife was caught subsribing to objectionable magazines for her husband to make him look bad.)

A court order creates a paper trail to minimize the potential and the APPEARANCE of potential abuse. A court order means order signed by the judge, none of this clerk of court wishy washy pseudo prodection.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Try re-reading the article. Some information they'll give out without a court order, but it explicitly says that info on credit card transactions will require a court order.