That veil of secrecy online is now much thinner after a precedent setting ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden forcing Google to turn over the identifiable information it had on a blogger who called former model Liskula Cohen a "skank" among other things in a blog called “Skanks in NYC”.

Judge Madden wrote in her decision, "The thrust of the blog is that Cohen is a sexually promiscuous woman."

Cohen and her legal team sought the bloggers identity so Cohen could sue for defamation. The ruling forced Google to turn over the IP address and the email address of the blogger. As it turned out, Cohen knew the author of the blog once the identity was turned over and says that she called the blogger up directly.

After learning the identity of the blogger Cohen says, "I just dialed her up. I said no more lawyers, it's OK. I forgive you."

The decision has far reaching implications though as SFGate points out. After the precedent setting case, if bloggers write something online without identifying themselves it may now be easier for those maligned in any posts to find who the blogger is and take legal action against them.

The legal tactics used by Cohen's attorney are also reportedly similar to those that the Chinese government used to find dissident bloggers in its country. Ironically, Cohen's name is now tied to the Google search query "Skank NYC".