Fedex: When it absolutely, positively has to be subpoenable

Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 13:47:49 -0700
From: Phil Agre >pagre@weber.ucsd.edu<
To: rre@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Fedex and privacy

[Note: PCW reports that Fedex gets 300 to 500 subpoenas a day.]

Date: Tue, 18 Apr 95 11:10:58 PDT
From: RISKS Forum >risks@csl.sri.com<
Subject: RISKS DIGEST 17.06

RISKS-LIST: RISKS-FORUM Digest  Tuesday 18 April 1995  Volume 17 : Issue 06

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Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 20:55:08 -0400
From: pcw@access.digex.com (Peter Wayner)
Subject: Overnight Privacy RISKS...

A common theme in this forum is how computers can create dismay out of
order. For instance, I've always considered FedEx to be far superior to the
Post Office because you their computer system tracks the packages to the
correct destination. Today's WSJ (April 11, 1995, B1) offers a story
describing how lawyers routinely subpoena FedEx for these same computerized
shipping records. The article mentions a tobacco researcher who had his
FedEx shipments subpoenaed by a tobacco company interested in his
correspondence.

Being a curious and frequent customer of Federal Express, I called up their
legal department to find out if anyone had been subpoenaing my shipping
records. This seemed to upset them because they get 300-500 subpoenas a day
and their data base just wasn't set up to look for my name. They did tell me
that they can only offer proof of delivery and copies of the airbills
generated from microfiche. These do not arrive overnight, however, because
it takes them 2-6 weeks to process each court order. Oh, they did mention in
passing that they don't keep any records of cash transactions.

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End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 17.06 
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