How Private is Facebook?

October 5th

Facebook and privacy issues go hand in hand these days, and the issues have been left largely unaddressed so far under the law. Although Facebook has only been around for a few years its impact has been undeniable. And yet there have been few moves to address how Facebook and other social media sites should be treated under the law. The Stored Communications Act, just about the only law that has been created to determine the legal status of sites like Facebook, was passed in 1986. Needless to say, technology has changed a good deal in the past quarter of a century. Without strict legal guidelines laid down by congress, judges have relied on interpretations of this 1986 law to determine what to do about issues arising from the legal status of information originating from social media sites. In recent cases judges have had trouble applying the spirit of what the law says with regards to such complicated and multi-functional sites as Facebook and Media Temple. Therefore, the question still looking for an answer is, what is privacy in the era of social media and information liberation?

For more on the social media and its legal status, watch our course by Tim Baran and Ronald Coleman "Social Media and the Law: What Attorneys Should Know"

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