U.S. District Judge William Pauley III has ruled that law enforcement officials can access a suspect’s Facebook profile without a warrant if they do so with a friend’s permission.
“The decision, which is part of a New York City racketeering trial, comes as courts struggle to define privacy and civil liberties in the age of social media,” reports GigaOM. “Judge Pauley’s ruling is significant because it is the latest in a series of cases that defines how and when police can search social media.”
During the New York investigation, police used an informant’s Facebook account to access suspected gangster Melvin Colon’s Facebook account. After reading threatening messages, the police obtained a warrant to access the rest of his information.
The judge ruled that actions by the police do not violate the Fourth Amendment because Colon made his information known to friends on Facebook.
“Colon’s legitimate expectation of privacy ended when he disseminated posts to his ‘friends’ because those ‘friends’ were free to use the information however they wanted — including sharing it with the Government,” explained Judge Pauley in the Bronx case.
The judge likened the methods to when police legally listen to a phone call as long as one of the parties agrees to allow the tapping to occur.
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