A police file on the arrest of Dutch hackers, in possession of the Dutch media, reveals that Skype voluntarily handed over personal information about an alleged 16 year old Dutch hacker. After Paypal and several other payment companies were attacked by hacker-group Anonymous they hired a Dutch IT security firm to investigate the attacks. Once the investigators of the company found out that a 16 year old Dutch citizen was involved they asked Skype, also a client of the company, for the suspect's personal details. Skype handed over the information, including his real name and address.
The police file also states that the company mailed Dutch authorities that they were waiting for Skype to hand over the details and they seemed to be very confident that they would receive it. That's strange as usually such information is only released with a court order. A spokesman of Skype also states that the company takes its customers privacy very serious and that it's not their policy to hand over customer data unless they get a valid request from legal authorities. The company is currently investigating how the information came in hands of a private company.
It's also unsure if the information can be used in court as privacy and telecom laws might not allow evidence collected this way.
