Mega ordered to give information to Kazakhstan

  • 13/05/2016
(Newshub.)
(Newshub.)

Mega, the encrypted storage website founded by Kim Dotcom, has been ordered to hand over information about its users to the Kazakhstan government.

The order comes after the hacking of the Kazakhstan government's computer system in 2014.

Kazakhstan says many sensitive government documents and emails stolen in the hack were then uploaded to Mega.nz.

On Thursday the High Court in Auckland ruled that Mega must release IP addresses, contact information, account and payment information relating to a particular group of users.

Kazakh news website Respublika -- a major critic of Kazakhstan's government -- had published articles on Facebook based on the stolen documents. The Kazakhstan government made a similar court order for information from Facebook but was denied.

Kazakhstan has started proceedings in New York suing 100 unnamed 'John Does' who it thinks carried out the hack.

The Auckland High Court's ruling says the information request was "essential to identifying at least some of the 'Does' named as defendants in the complaint".

"This information is neither particularly revealing nor particularly sensitive; it does not, for instance, carry the same degree of confidentiality as an individual's email or phone records. Therefore, I am satisfied that the privacy interests in this case should not carry significant weight," Justice Moore wrote.

Newshub.