Social media and the law.

Posted By: Brian Vail QC

1. INTRODUCTION

   In today's world, a number of social networking sites ("SNSs") have arisen, whereby people from all over the world are beginning to communicate with each other in new ways on the Internet. SNSs are a cultural phenomenon which have revolutionized interpersonal communication and will continue to do so.

   SNS users virtually trip over themselves to share a plethora of extremely personal details on their SNSs, including posts, photographs, residential details, hobbies, likes, dislikes, etc. Many SNS users seem to have no clue as to how little privacy they leave themselves. When people work on a computer alone in a room they can fail to appreciate that they are communicating with the world.

   Many people have learned how to access a person's information by accessing their SNSs including:

   1. Employers screening prospective employees;

   2. Insurers monitoring the lives of people making disability claims or receiving benefits;

   3. lawyers, police, investigators or others locating and communicating with witnesses, suspects and people they are trying to find; and

   4. lawyers, police, investigators or others seeking information and evidence about suspects, opposing clients, witnesses and potential jurors.

   Four aspects of SNSs are of particular interest:

1. Privacy settings. Most SNSs set default privacy settings which users may change (to increase or decrease privacy). Facebook employs the concept of registered "Friends" such that one can restrict accesses to his/her profile only to people accepted as "Friends". A user's privacy settings may be effectively downgraded if his/her information is shared with Friends who have lower privacy settings. You can find information about someone on a Friend's profile where access to it has been restricted on the subject's own profile.

2. Account deactivation and deletion. Deletion is the permanent removal of all user personal information from the SNS whereas deactivation merely renders the data inaccessible to other users (although it may remain on the SNS database indefinitely until deletion or reactivation is requested). Data on a deactivated profile can be accessed by request or litigation.

3. Accounts of deceased users. Many SNSs permit a user's profile to remain active after his/her death, so that its information can still be accessed.

4. Personal information of non-users. SNS users often disclose information about non-users on their SNS profiles without the non-users' knowledge or...