Let’s see your Facebook account, says judge
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- If you live in Ontario, Canada, and you’re on Facebook, be careful.
Because if you’re involved in a civil court case, there’s a better than even chance lawyers will go ferreting around in your account, looking for damaging information.
“Over the past few years Canadian popular culture has embraced www.facebook.com (’Facebook’), a social networking website, as a means by which to reveal one’s personal life to other members of the community one’s ‘Facebook friends’.”
The quote comes in an official court document and now, “An Ontario judge has ordered a party to a civil litigation case arising from a motor vehicle accident to hand over the contents of their private Facebook profile,” blogs Michael Geist, going on »»»
Importantly, the judge ruled that “a party who maintains a private, or limited access, Facebook profile stands in no different position than one who sets up a publicly-available profile.”
The judge seems to have arrived at that conclusion based on her understanding of Facebook:
a court can infer from the social networking purpose of Facebook, and the applications it offers to users such as the posting of photographs, that users intend to take advantage of Facebook`s applications to make personal information available to others. From the general evidence about Facebook filed on this motion it is clear that Facebook is not used as a means by which account holders carry on monologues with themselves; it is a device by which users share with others information about who they are, what they like, what they do, and where they go, in varying degrees of detail. Facebook profiles are not designed to function as diaries; they enable users to construct personal networks or communities of friends with whom they can share information about themselves, and on which friends can post information about the user.
Definitely stay tuned.
Michael Geist – Ontario Judge Orders Disclosure Of Facebook Profile, February 25, 2009
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February 25th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
…yeah, but I dont get it lol
What does fa$eb00k(love it =P) have to do with a Motor Vehicle Accident?
Should they be looking at the Cars or Insurance? lol
February 25th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Possibly the person’s status reflected relevant information to the accident? “Major hang over, can’t see/drive/walk worth a darn today” (j/k)
February 25th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
even if it said “major hang over” hangovers can be caused by car accidents. hell if two tons slammed into me, I’d be feeling shitty the next day. I think the judge is going to look at the people’s facebook account and to try to judge who is accountable. and who isn’t, based on the spelling, structure, etc of the people’s facebook accounts rather than the facts of the case.
Sadly, judges ignoring the facts of the case and trying to make decisions from irrelevant data has become the norm with judges, and also true with managers and political figures these days.
What the dipshit judges and politicians don’t see is that anyone can create a facebook account of someone else. The internet is completely anonymous and is retarded to make it anything other than that. do a search for a celebrity on facebook, apparently Brad Pitt attended 18 different highschools, has 18 different birthdays, and was born in 18 different states (as well as about 2 or 3 different countries). A wonder what the judge would think of that?
February 25th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
@an Arse:
Would the creation of an account about someone else not count as defamation or fraud?
The internet is not completely anonymous unless you are gifted with re-routing your packets through a carefully laid-out, always evolving and relocating network of send/receive applications hidden on unsuspecting user’s computers.
February 25th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
@Robert
true, how about these two possibilities to illustrate what I am trying to say.
Case 1: A person creates a facebook account at home, and then changes the account information at work, or even at a library.
Case 2: A person creates a facebook account from home, and then the contents get changed by another employee at work.
Case 3: Another person creates a facebook account at a library or school computer defaming the first person, but the first person doesn’t use facebook and doesn’t know about it.
There is no way an employer, judge, or an investigator can prove that Case 1 happens and Case 2 or Case 3 doesn’t.
Many people, especially the fruit at the bottom of the tree, use many computers at different locations. There is no way at all to prove that “if the internet says so about someone, then it must be true”.
Anyone knows the internet, and mainstream media as welled, is often flooded with bullshit and untrue statements about things. Just because a judge finds some information about someone on facebook means nothing, or at least should mean nothing under a fair system of law. Unfortunately, a fair and just government doesn’t exist in the United States.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
also @Robert
true, internet is not completely anonymous, but with Dynamic IP Addresses being the default, people modifying and replacing computers which changes the MAC, and connecting to a site from multiple locations. The internet should be considered anonymous in the court of law, since the information gained about someone may not be specific to the person itself. hell, Jon’s name could easily not be Jon, and Jon could easily be living in China and not have a daughter. With the exception of country-based IP addresses, there would be no way of proving the information true or false from the internet.
Look at MMORPG games, often called “Many Men Online Role-Playing Girls”. Most of the people in World of Warcraft that claim to be girls are actually men; everyone knows they are men, and the people playing WoW are neither Orcs nor female in real life. yet, they say they are orcs and female ingame…. How is facebook any different from Wow? hell, there is even a facebook page about Mario and Luigi that pretend to be the real Mario and Luigi.
In short, people live entirely different lives on the internet than in real life.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
@an Arse:
“Unfortunately, a fair and just government doesn’t exist in “! Agreed!
I believe the scapegoat is the law likes to use words such as “reasonable person” and “likely hood” to get around technicalities. Look at the way schools are using Facebook to expel students, not cool! Students should be a little more cognizant of what they write online, as it technically is public.
Perhaps people use the internet as the opportunity to act out whatever fantasies they can, as a means to escape their own realities or make up what is lacking.
February 26th, 2009 at 12:20 am
thats what games are about as in MMORPG’s you get to be somehting your not yet details such from that will be in a court , yup lets damage the internet so bad no one wants to use it period and all these businesses go under
i got my 3 TB drives full a everything i want who cares then what happens to you and the rest right?
WRONG why should you not have the same growth and knowledge learning that i had.
I learned 90% of my IT knowledge form the net it self and those who would share.
Apparently that’s worth 3000 Euro now a month. Not bad eh, welfare to 3000 Euro revenue…..per month
February 26th, 2009 at 12:24 am
the net can also be anonymous if you encrypt everything as per another article and you can just get in the “habit”
the only one then is your ISP whom we should mandate BY LAW to keep you safe and secret UNLESS that IP is detected looking at say, kiddy pron OR say some kinda terrorist activities. BTW WITH A WARRANT for redress of innocence later.
February 26th, 2009 at 12:25 am
and its an old hacker trick to leave key loggers about where you can to gather passwords and how will that affect a setup, i would serioulsy appeal that judges decision on technical merits of the technology and whats going.
February 26th, 2009 at 12:35 am
on adlib , when any part visible to the encrypted network such as this is going on , should any part fail, what happens is that it not only has a replacement behind it taking its place but it also then has a set of file servers out there also that will replace the 3rd set so as to maintain a triplicate of each file with 2 in reserve even of the central server, this also can be or could well be applied ot most file sharing techniques and protocols using a layer protocol like this design.
February 26th, 2009 at 12:37 am
ALSO to up the first set of files you use a proxy chain form someone elses known internet line so as to 100% not be traceable , you set a wireless laptop near the ground and cover it then goto a van and network to it and command it to do as you will.
Hows that for the future in a back in 2001 sense
February 26th, 2009 at 6:50 am
so this judge choose to reside in a house not in the woods of canada somewhere with no neighbors around for 100 iles.
Therefor since she choose to settle next to so many people she made her living publicly, have her remove all window curtains and open the door to everyone that wants to get more information of her private live!
After all, she choosed to setup her live in such a public way by settleing next to other humans!
February 26th, 2009 at 10:25 am
@dum isp:
Kudos to you for using the net to educate yourself.
I left my previous job to move across the country for my fiancee to attend school for her masters. My previous job wasn’t the best at FW skill development so I used the resources online and now I have a job, after 6 months, starting in two weeks!
I firmly believe when you can not just say “I did a tutorial” but “I took their ideas and build my own…” employers are very impressed and that gives you an edge!