Electronic Discovery of Your Facebook Profile

http://ow.ly/83g6E

An article by "Staff Reporter" and published on the O'Connors website.

This article discusses a specific case regarding a discovery request to produce information from the social media network Facebook.

The article states, "In November, a Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas issued an opinion in Largent v. Reed, No. 2009-1823 (Pa. Common Pleas Franklin 2011) (slip op.; 11-8-11), a case involving damages for injuries sustained in a case accident." A link to the referenced case is provided.

This case involved a situation where the defendant requested information posted by the plaintiff, claiming the posts ran counter to the plaintiff's injury claims.

The court held that the information should be produced.  The article provides some analysis as to why the court ruled as it did.

The case opinion is quoted in the article as follows, "The Court holds that no general privacy privilege protects [plaintiff’s] Facebook material from discovery. No court has recognized such privilege, and neither will we. By definition, there can be little privacy on a social networking website. Facebook’s foremost purpose is to “help you connect and share with the people in your life.” That can only be accomplished by sharing information with others. Only the uninitiated or foolish could believe that Facebook is an online lockbox of secrets."

The court further held, "The court further held that individual users are not covered under the Stored Communications Act (SCA); thus, the statute did not prohibit the defendant’s discovery in this case."

The article provides a link to other articles and comments on about this topic.  In addition a quote for Orin Kerr, in one of the articles provided by link is also included by the author, " [T]he privacy of Facebook communications are protected by 18 U.S.C. 2701 of the Stored Communications Act, … in addition to 18 U.S.C. 1030, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which protects all computers generally. Both of these statutes prohibit accessing electronic accounts without authorization or in excess of authorization."

P.S. So as the author says, the real question comes down to what is "authorization"? Can a trial court give "authorization", or must it come from Facebook, or the Facebook account holder?