Court Demands Private Facebook Data

Defeat Globalism writes in with a Canadian court decision that has ordered a man suing over injuries from a car accident to answer questions about content on his private "friends only" Facebook page. "Lawyers for Janice Roman, the defendant in the lawsuit, believe information posted on John Leduc's private Facebook site — normally accessible only to his approved 'friends' — may be relevant to his claim an accident in Lindsay in 2004 lessened his enjoyment of life. As a result of the ruling by Justice David Brown of Ontario's Superior Court of Justice, Leduc must now submit to cross-examination by Roman's lawyers about what his Facebook page contains. Brown's Feb. 20 ruling also makes clear that lawyers must now explain to their clients 'in appropriate cases' that postings on Facebook or other networking sites — such as MySpace, LinkedIn and even blogs — may be relevant to allegations in a lawsuit, said Tariq Remtulla, a Toronto lawyer who has been following the issue."

Comments

Re:Discovery

[Shihar]

I really don't see why this is news worthy myself. So a court ordered someone to hand over private documents... this happens all the time. The fact that it is stuff posted on the quasi private Facebook doesn't really change much. If the government demanded that Facebook hand over its entire database to search for terrorist, I would be concerned. The fact that someone who is being sued is getting their Facebook page opened up as apart of normal evidence gathering is unremarkable.

People... if you are breaking a law, don't post it on Facebook and assume that the magic of the internet will keep it from the authorities.

Re:With all due respect to our Canadian neighbors

[rtb61]

The reality is though that facebook is not about your or anybody else's life, it is a fabricated digital facade, a impression you wish to create of yourself to be viewed by others be they strangers or friends. The lawyers fishing expedition was not even about catching real fish, it was all about trying to catch phantom illusory fish and then hoping to present that illusion as real.

So a real warning to people who naively surrender their privacy, about how that information can be misused and twisted out of shape to present in what ever light people can use to their advantage. So face book, myspace et al, a really bad idea unless you simply want to put up a completely non personal digital illusion of yourself and present yourself in the best possible light. New online business prospect, the creation and maintenance of PR=B$ on line profiles, you too can now be like the rich and greedy pseudo celebrities, where publicists create an illusion to hide the venal self serving worthless reality.

Do you also know that you can also use that illusory personal profile in court cases to your advantage, as long as it is suitable and carefully prepared over an extended period.

Re:With all due respect to our Canadian neighbors

[icebike]

Well said. But bear in mind:

If the loss of enjoyment of life refers to what we all suspect it refers to, and the "vic" brags about banging every hot bod in town to his private friends it goes directly to credibility, and possible perjury.

The private pages are not necessarily the same as the public facade pages. The public pages amount to public statements.

The private pages amount to a private discussion in the lobby of a hotel with friends.

If they differer the vic has a problem.

Far too many people jump into the meat market of web 2.0 thinking it will make the cool, relevant, and part of the in crowd.