Judge Rules" Private" Facebook Posts Admissable in Court

Article

"New York judge rules 'private' Facebook content can be used as evidence in court


By Vlad Savov posted Sep 30th 2010 7:57AM

Privacy? On the internet!? You've got to be joking. That has, more or less, been the reaction of New York Justice Jeffrey Spinner when faced with the issue of deciding whether or not content posted to the private sections of Facebook and MySpace should be made available as evidence in court. To be honest, it shouldn't come as a shock ..."

(read more at link.)

So basically this Judge has ruled that even if you set your page to private, anything posted behind those private curtains can and will be used against you if the court wants it to be.

I do not know what to think about this one.

On one hand privacy settings are for a reason, so it is shared only with those you want to see it.

On the other hand what are you doing posting incriminating photos online, private or not?

Thoughts?

reply to post by hotbakedtater


Despite there being no privacy on the internet, as long as any evidence collected in these "private" posts are collected the same way anything else falling under the tenets of "reasonable expectation of privacy" would I don't really have a problem with it.

Nobody is forced to have a facebook and if you do, you certainly shouldn't advertise anything stupid you do on it.

Evidence is evidence. If an individual commits a crime, then I have no problem with using "private" facebook posts, so long as a search warrant is issued. The same goes with journals, diary, etc. It's private so long as you follow the law.

well, the medium is the WWW ...don't ya know
the world wide web.....private section....yeszzzz

Originally posted by GBP/JPY
the medium is the WWW
the world wide web

Or World Wide Wiretap?

I agree with Aggie Man

Evidence is evidence. If an individual commits a crime, then I have no problem with using "private" facebook posts, so long as a search warrant is issued.

Just as a private letter or phone call can be used if it's collected properly. I don't see what the issue here is. If there is a warrant and it's done ok then it should be used just the same.

Adding another echo to this thread:

There really isn't an issue here as long as said evidence is collected legally.

Either way though, doesn't facebook own anything you post? Can't they, if approached by the authorities, freely turn over anything they have?

Ex: I have a picture of me murdering someone on my facebook. The authorities get wind of it and go to facebook and say "Hey would you mind pulling up so and so's account and giving me picture number 1245? As the owner it is your right to oblige or refuse" And facebook, not wanting to get involved, freely hands it over, as it's their property.

Isn't that how a logical investigator would go about it anyways, assuming I am correct in stating that facebook owns our postings.

OR!

What if one of my friends prints out that picture and takes it to the authorities. They then did not break any laws.

It boils down to this though: don't post what you don't want to get known..it's amazing people still need to be reminded of this.

I am going to have to go ahead and agree that anything you post up online is fairgame.

No one is forcing you to post incriminating photos, like the OP, the lady was trying to say she was injured but the insurance company wanted access to private photos they claim show her doing the limbo.

And if you are posting on someone else's site ie Facebook, well the content you post becomes theirs and there is no need for a warrnt of Facebook just hands it over.

I think I am interpreting this correct.

For someone to post anything on the Internet ANYWHERE and then complain about it not being private is like someone running down the street, shouting their innermost secrets and then complaining because someone heard them.

Nothing is private on the Internet. NOWHERE.

The concepts of the internet and privacy are mutually exclusive.

It's ridiculous to believe that there is any possibility of privacy on the internet, due to how it operates.

For example, I'm sure there is some geek somewhere that could work out my exact identity based entirely on this post that I'm making to ATS.

All in all, I agree with the judge.