Found this very interesting post on Personal Democracy Forum, a blog that tracks the intersect of technology and politics.

TxtMob, a group SMS service and its creator, Tad Hirsch, a long-time MobileActive colleague, have been subpoenaed by the city of New York to turn over information about TxtMob users and activists who participated in the 2004 protests against the Republican National Convention there.

In a blow to privacy and a chilling development to activists, the city, involved in a law suit, has requested that information about text messages, phone numbers, and other personal information is turned over to the city. Support is needed, so please go to TxtMob and donate.

The whole post is worth reading, first about the actual text messaging service (which I had no idea existed) also the fact that they used it back in 2004 (I don't even think I was texting back then) and that this issue--four years later--is just now coming up again.

I think there's definitely a privacy issue here, but I also would wonder if the city of New York intends on working with the city of St.. Paul and will give them any information they receive about protesters (that could be relevant to our upcoming Republican National Convention). If say, they are able to retrieve the information from TxtMob and its' creator, would it be legal for NY to then share it with St. Paul? I kind of doubt it, but am not sure.