Say what?
We all know that the fourth amendment in the Bill of Rights protects U.S. citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures. This means a warrant is required from a Judge before a search or seizure can be conducted… legally. The warrant must be sanctioned and supported by probable cause before a law enforcement officer can search and seize information or property belonging to a person.
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” – Amendment IV to the United States Constitution
Now you are probably thinking what this has to do with Facebook and why I am bringing up our birth given right to privacy as a citizen of the United States of America, right?
Law enforcement agencies around the country have been issued warrants from Federal Judges regarding investigations that need more information and have turned to social media sites like Facebook for answers. Many warrants that have been issued, request information about a user’s personal data like messages, photos, videos, links, calendared events, posts and even friend requests. It doesn’t just stop there. Anyone linked to you or you talked to or about in any way on Facebook can be investigated… all without notifying you.
Does that breach our constitutional right to privacy since we aren’t notified we are being investigated? Or that random people on our friend’s list are being searched and lurked by our government because the law enforcement agent feels the need to? Doesn’t that require a warrant for each person they click on to investigate? There are so many questions that need to be answered but aren’t. They haven’t been answered yet because no one has challenged it. How are you supposed to challenge something that you don’t even know is going on?
Facebook has already had numerous complaints about its privacy settings and security in the past. So how does it make user’s feel that they are freely complying to warrants and have “data packages” ready to pass on to government agencies without notifying you? No comment. Facebook representatives have kept quiet on the matter. Social media networking sites like Twitter find the lack of notifying a user of being searched by government agencies is unethical and unconstitutional. That is why Twitter and other social media networking sites have adopted a policy to notify users if they are being searched by law enforcement agencies.
So why does Facebook not feel the same way about their users? A spokesman for the company said that they are “Sensitive to user privacy” and that they “regularly push back against law enforcement” requests. That doesn’t explain why they do not tell users that they have a warrant issued and they are being investigated by law enforcement. This leaves those being investigated and their lawyers unaware of information or evidence that was found that could be valuable to their defense.
Do you think it is our constitutional right to be notified that you are being investigated and that all your personal data is in the hands of a government agency? I sure do.
Gamers already are alert to the constant hacking of personal information (…ahem, Sony) and now have to worry about personal information on a social networking site being given to government agencies without even being notified. Cases that were available to the public eye pertaining to this issue were discovered and talked about on the Reuters news site. It is spreading fast throughout the media and social media outlets all over the internet. Facebook’s unethical and seemingly unconstitutional approach to aiding government agencies and constant security/privacy problems is why they are losing users to other social networking sites like Google+.
I’m curious on other people’s opinions and thought on the matter. So feel free to share them in the comment section below.
