TorrentSpy cut off access to their web site late Sunday night to any users from the United States in a bid to keep confidential the users of the web site. The sites thoughts on privacy based on legal issues between European data privacy rights and the data privacy rights of the USA are at odds in the self imposed block.

“TorrentSpy’s decision to stop accepting U.S. visitors was not compelled by any court,” according to a statement from the company. “Rather, it arises out of an uncertain legal climate in the United States regarding user privacy and the apparent tension between U.S. and European Union Internet privacy laws.” Source: News.com

The issue at stake is privacy, and while the court still has not determined if TorrentSpy will be required to keep logs, which they currently do not, because the data is stored in RAM at some point in the transaction. The problem becomes more noticeable as this decision will only influence people in the United States, and will have a devastating influence on privacy and the internet that reaches far beyond TorrentSpy.

If the court holds out that because the transaction is in RAM, this will mean that all proxy systems, TOR systems, and other anonomizing systems currently located in the United States will in some ways be compelled to start keeping logs of all the transactions that happen on their sites. While this will be a boon for off shore proxy systems, it will virtually shut down the anonomizing systems currently hosted in the United States if the court rules that all web sites must keep logs.

This also bodes poorly for every other tracker system also currently hosted in the USA, logs are an important part in figuring out who did what on a web site. Direct access to the logs in pursuit of any forensics case, or any court case is also very important in proving that someone did or did not do a thing from a particular IP address, well unless they are using proxy, TOR or other systems. Being able to back track entire transactions throughout the internet. And in some cases this can seriously jeopardize people in countries that restrict free speech.

This is something that anyone who uses any proxy system needs to know about, and it raises issues about linking, harvesting, or making some forms of data available as a Meta system. The ramifications of the process are going to be felt throughout the computer industry for decades to come, and in some cases, it will be difficult to get used to the entire internet as a monitored system.