“Communications made on Facebook and other social networking services (SNS) are increasingly being used as sources of evidence in courts. Recent use of this evidence has spurred debate over the legality and ethics of harvesting such information. For example, Facebook’s “terms of use” specify that “the website is available for your personal, noncommercial use only,” misleading some to believe that others may not use the site for conducting investigations. However, Facebook spokespeople have made it clear that Facebook is a public forum and all information published on the site should be presumed available to the general public. Legal experts agree that public information sources such as Facebook can be legally used in criminal or other investigations.”

LINK TO DECISION

(NOTE: This article appeared in the September 2012 issue of New York County Lawyer [on pages 1 and 14] and this link is to that entire issue.)