Broadband Tech > Security > Security > When cops subpoena your Facebook info, here's what FB sends

When cops subpoena your Facebook info, here's what FB sends

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One of the most fascinating documents we came across was the BPD's subpoena of Philip Markoff's Facebook information. It's interesting for a number of reasons -- for one thing, Facebook has been pretty tight-lipped about the subpoena process, even refusing to acknowledge how many subpoenas they've served. Social-networking data is a contested part of a complicated legal ecosystem -- in some cases, courts have found that such data is protected by the Stored Communications Act.

In fact, we'd never seen an executed Facebook subpoena before -- but here we have one, including the forms that Boston Police filed to obtain the information, and the printed (on paper!) response that Facebook sent back, which includes text printouts of Markoff's wall posts, photos he uploaded as well as photos he was tagged in, a comprehensive list of friends with their Facebook IDs (which we've redacted), and a long table of login and IP data.

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Has anyone else noticed that when some major crime happens these days the media finds and publishes the suspected perpetrators social media information? They seem to be upset when they can't find any (e.g. Sandy Hook school shooter).

If you put stuff online it'll probably be used against you (and perhaps twisted to fit an agenda). If you don't have a social media profile you're a "social misfit" weirdo who everyone should be on guard against. Catch 22 (no gun reference intended--that would be un-PC).
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Don't feed trolls--it only makes them grow!

I wonder what they'd make of my long-neglected facebook account that I check maybe once a month and haven't posted anything on in forever. I'd probably still get the whole "social misfit" label. Especially since I "liked" Babylon 5 and Dexter.
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Think Outside the Fox.

All this plastic isn't for keeping the blood off the walls, floor, and ceiling! Honest!

reply to StuartMW
And that is the funny thing, not having active social media today makes people think "Anti-Social".

I will admit that I never use my facebook, In part because I do not feel like one who needs to post their life as it happens.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports

reply to sivran

reply to goalieskates
Not at all surprising, but still interesting to see. Thanks for the article. I've never had a Facebook account and intend to maintain my social media aversion.

reply to sivran
Holly crap since when is liking Babylon 5 a bad thing?
Crap! I love that show?!
Is it become of Anti-Nightwatch thing?

reply to sivran
Babylon 5 is awesome. Own the whole series on DVD.
Took FOREVER for the prices on the DVD sets to come down to a reasonable price. In Canada, Best Buy, Future Shop, Walmart...HMV had the the box sets for like $150 bucks a piece! Insane. Now they are so reasonably priced.
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Remember that cool hidden "Graffiti Wall" here on BBR? After the name change I became the "owner", so to speak as it became: Dustyn's Wall »[Serious] RIP

reply to sivran

reply to goalieskates
And related:

Why Facebook Data Tends to Condemn You in Court (Wired)

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U.S. courts have a structural bias against “guilty” verdicts, but when it comes to Facebook data the situation is reversed: Social media activity is more readily used to convict you in a court of law than to defend you.

That’s because prosecutors generally have an easier time than defense attorneys getting private information out of Facebook and other social networks, as highlighted in an ongoing Portland murder case. In that case, the defense attorney has evidence of a Facebook conversation in which a key witness reportedly tells a friend he was pressured by police into falsely incriminating the defendant.

Facebook rebuffed the defense attorney’s subpoena seeking access to the conversation, citing the federal Stored Communications Act, which protects the privacy of electronic communications like e-mail – but which carves out an exemption for law enforcement, thus assisting prosecutors. “It’s so one-sided … they cooperate 110 percent anytime someone in the government asks for information,” one Oregon attorney told the Portland Oregonian, citing a separate case in which Facebook withheld conversations that could have disproved a rape charge, but turned over the same conversations when the prosecution demanded them.

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I have to call BS. Read Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. Bugliosi was the prosecutor in the Manson trial. The prosecutor has to give every thing they have to the defense, but not the other way around. Even if the defense can't get it from Facebook they will get it from the prosecution if the prosecution got it from Facebook.
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“Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.” ¯ Robert A. Heinlein