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Here's What Facebook Sends the Cops In Response To a Subpoena

Posted by timothy on from the your-dna-in-a-box dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Facebook already shares its Law Enforcement Guidelines publicly, but we've never actually seen the data Menlo Park sends over to the cops when it gets a formal subpoena for your profile information. Now we know. This appears to be the first time we get to see what a Facebook account report looks like. The document was released by the The Boston Phoenix as part of a lengthy feature titled 'Hunting the Craigslist Killer,' which describes how an online investigation helped officials track down Philip Markoff. The man committed suicide, which meant the police didn't care if the Facebook document was published elsewhere, after robbing two women and murdering a third."

43 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Feel bad for his girlfriend by danbuter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe they should have deleted his girlfriends name and location from this stuff, before publishing it to the net.

    1. Re:Feel bad for his girlfriend by Sir_Sri · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Or really anyone he befriended on facebook.

      The girlfriend might have been basically screwed on the deal no matter what, since as his girlfriend some of her information might have been out there anyway.

      It does seem like the article in question is very perturbed by the way the police released the info though, and didn't sanitize everything, leaving reporters to do it, who may not have realized that people can be linked via their unique facebook id's in the URL string etc. I suppose that's a good argument for an addendum to the facebook legal document pile, that if you release this information, the following other information should be redacted so as to not endanger the privacy of people not covered by the existing request.

    2. Re:Feel bad for his girlfriend by History's+Coming+To · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you friend somebody you make that information public, it's how social networks, you know, network socially. They're presenting that information in an unpleasant context, yes, but it's still public.

      --
      Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
    3. Re:Feel bad for his girlfriend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      unless, of course, you set your privacy to 'friends only'. anyone getting information beyond that is still a breech.

    4. Re:Feel bad for his girlfriend by tbird81 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Not if your friend essentially releases that information (by committing crimes, then committing suicide). You've got to chose your friends well - even your Facebook friends.

      I've got a screenshot of Clayton Weatherston's Facebook main page. He's a narcissistic economics tutor who stabbed his girlfriend to death and her mother tried to get into the room - on his birthday.

      The year afterwards, there were still people wishing him happy birthday, oblivious to the fact that this guy was in police custody awaiting trial for a very well publicised and terrible murder. That's what Facebook friends are like.

      There were two med students I knew who still had him friended - they didn't even know how they knew him. They were clueless that their name was associated with one of the most hated people in NZ.

  2. The last thing they would care about by secretwhistle · · Score: 2

    After robbing two women and murdering a third, I'd be very surprised if the police cared about anything.

    1. Re:The last thing they would care about by Elbereth · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Allegedly. Innocent until proven guilty.

    2. Re:The last thing they would care about by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Allegedly. Innocent until proven guilty.

      If you're not a lawyer, a judge, or a juror, you have no obligation to maintain an artificial neutrality with regards to someone's guilt or innocence.

      Innocent in the eyes of the law != innocent.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    3. Re:The last thing they would care about by tbird81 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Very true. I wish people would stop believing that a court's decision is always correct. People escape conviction all the time.

    4. Re:The last thing they would care about by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That is true, but popular opinion is unlikely to be more correct than the courts, since they don't even have all the information available to them.

      If a man is found innocent in court but is treated as guilty by society, then what's the point of even having a trial?

    5. Re:The last thing they would care about by swalve · · Score: 2

      Regardless, since the courts are the best way to impartially try to determine guilt or innocence, thinking people reserve judgement until after a trial. "I just know he's guilty" really doesn't count for anything.

    6. Re:The last thing they would care about by illumnatLA · · Score: 3, Informative

      Very true. I wish people would stop believing that a court's decision is always correct. People escape conviction all the time.

      And vice versa unfortunately.

      The poor are more likely to get convicted and serve jail time as they can't afford the expensive 'good' lawyers and must rely on the overworked, under-budgeted public defenders.

      --
      Web hosting that doesn't suck!Dreamhost
    7. Re:The last thing they would care about by blackest_k · · Score: 4, Informative

      In normal circumstances, it is wise to proceed with caution before accusing somebody and generally the evidence isn't presented to be viewed by the general public.

      However in this case i am confident that the identification by one of the women robbed, the dead girls blood on his clothing the shell casings left at the murder scene that matched the gun found in his apartment along with the disposable phones he used for contacting the women ...

      The evidence is solid enough to be sure that he did in fact commit the crimes he was accused of. Plus there is no chance of being sued for deformation what with the guy having committed suicide while awaiting trial.

      There were a few interesting points made, while he used disposable phones to contact the women he also had his regular phone with him which tied him to the same cells used by the disposable phones at the same times which was useful in identifying him as a suspect. He also made the email account he used to contact the girl he murdered from his home ip address.

      The police nearly made a mess of things when they brought him in as after interviewing him there wasn't enough evidence to charge him, but luckily while he was in custody being questioned one of the women who was robbed identified him with absolute certainty which enabled the police to search his apartment and find the physical evidence. Without her identification of him they almost certainly would have had to let him go and give him the opportunity of disposing of the physical evidence.

      The facebook stuff is interesting in that it shows what information facebook holds about someone even after that information has been "deleted". However in this case nothing facebook released gave any evidence towards the criminal case.

      The guy was a medical student so it is reasonable to assume he was highly intelligent, he also seems to have had a gambling problem.

      His choice of who to rob was probably made on the basis he thought that the services these women offered was likely to mean they would have money from earlier clients and less likely to report a robbery. The article also mentioned he had a collection of women's underwear under his mattress so maybe it was more than just getting money to pay his debts.

      Did he rob other women who didn't report the crime?

      --
      Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
    8. Re:The last thing they would care about by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      The idea of the "lesser of two evils" is kinda odd considering that the big two are essentially on the same payrolls. It's like buying a crappy product from one salesperson rather than the other one from the same company selling the same product and thinking it somehow improves the quality of the product.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    9. Re:The last thing they would care about by canadian_right · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The bigger problem is convicting the innocent. It is very rare for people who commit serious crimes to get off. It is much more common for the wrong person to be convicted.

      --
      Anarchists never rule
    10. Re:The last thing they would care about by EdwinFreed · · Score: 2

      Um, when an innocent person gets convicted doesn't that also mean the actual guilty party got away with it?

    11. Re:The last thing they would care about by ShakaUVM · · Score: 2

      >>Plus there is no chance of being sued for deformation

      Oh, thank goodness!

  3. Direct link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/105727/fb-subpoena-db/index.html

  4. Unclear antecedents are dangerous! by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The man committed suicide, which meant the police didn't care if the Facebook document was published elsewhere, after robbing two women and murdering a third."

    Indeed, if the cops are going around robbing and murdering, why should any of us worry about a Facebook profile?

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    1. Re:Unclear antecedents are dangerous! by colinrichardday · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, clearly it was the Facebook document that robbed two women and murdered a third.

    2. Re:Unclear antecedents are dangerous! by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 2

      Oh God, I didn't think of that angle. That's even more terrifying. WHO WILL STOP THE KILLER FACEBOOK PAGES?!?

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    3. Re:Unclear antecedents are dangerous! by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      On a serious not, I think it is worrisome that the police did not care. To me even a convicted criminal has rights to privacy. I understand that many people say that as soon as a person is convicted (I am not even talking mugshots of arrested people) they should lose all their rights.

      I hold myself to higher standards and will defend the privacy rights of everybody, including the worst mass murders and my ex-girlfriend.

      If nothing else because of the "First they came for the criminals ..." slippery-slope.

      If I want to defend MY privacy, it means I must respect YOURS as well. The moment I get an excuse not to respect yours (e.g. you are a convicted killer) you will find an excuse not to respect mine.

      The fact that my phone-number is in the phone-book does not mean you can write it on the wall in the mens-room.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  5. What does slashdot provide... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    to a formal subpoena?

    1. Re:What does slashdot provide... by tftp · · Score: 2

      Slashdot has very little to provide beyond public comments that the account holder wrote. There is probably only the email address that isn't public, and preferences (which don't have much value.)

      The IP address may be logged, but I doubt that all the millions of HTTP requests per day are logged for more than a day, even if that. Slashdot has no duty to keep logs, and it costs money to do so, and it creates a legal obligation to make those logs available. Why to have them then?

    2. Re:What does slashdot provide... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      What does slashdot provide...

      1x Bag of Hot-Grits
      1x stained 1979 signed photo of Natalie Portman
      2x pairs of Cmdr Tacos underpants (slightly soiled but usable)
      2x bags of Pickled Onion Chips (crushed)
      1x Copy of Linux for n00bz (2nd edition)
      1x Pony (pink natch)
      1x ????
      1x PROFIT !!

    3. Re:What does slashdot provide... by larry+bagina · · Score: 2

      You forgot about the "anonymous" comments.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  6. Private Messages by Celexi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is it just me, but it doesn't include private messages? or is it because there were none?

    1. Re:Private Messages by rgbrenner · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Is this the same data people get when the request a DVD (under EU laws)? Because if it is, then I'm having a hard time imagining what the problem is... It's basically everything the user has posted on the site + their IP address/last login.

      Were people really surprised that the stuff they stored on Facebook was stored on Facebook?

    2. Re:Private Messages by Cederic · · Score: 2

      It doesn't include everything about the user, so it would be an incomplete record under EU law.

      Which is in itself interesting :)

  7. Re:Buttholes! Buttholes! Buttholes! Levodopa! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is the best argument for browsing at -1 that I have ever seen. Even though it looks like it's machine-generated nonsense, it's still one of the best comments ever made on Slashdot.

  8. account by 101percent · · Score: 2

    Never had an account. Never will. I'm glad I've stuck to my guns this long and I hope others will push forward as well. I wonder if this correlates to me never having a girlfriend.

    1. Re:account by jonbryce · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you read the Boston Phoenix article, it was actually the IP address he used to sign up for his throwaway hotmail account, followed by the street address associated with that from Comcast that identified him. Then they did further field work to establish that it was him, and not a neighbour or passer-by who had hacked into his wifi network. The Facebook profile in this case didn't produce any useful information.

  9. Re:Makes you wonder by gellenburg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Same info but without the redactions.

  10. Re:Buttholes! Buttholes! Buttholes! Levodopa! by EdIII · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is the best argument for browsing at -1 that I have ever seen. Even though it looks like it's machine-generated nonsense, it's still one of the best comments ever made on Slashdot.

    I wholly agree. It reminds me of Vogon poetry. Butthole is used throughout, quite successfully, as a lubricant for the deep prose sprinkled about. Without it, I believe it would make much less sense. While the statement that "God is a dog's anus farting loudly" was quite provocative as a commentary on the meaning of life, it derailed rather quickly with the nonsequiter introduction of a catfish arriving at noon of all times....

    Not the work of a true Vogon master, but I sense much potential.

  11. less verbose than I thought by mindcandy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Compared to what some of the European folks that were using DPA to harass Facebook and getting reams of data, this seems pretty tame .. perhaps it's because FB was just responding the subpoena as written?

    Nothing in TFA should surprise anyone that has any experience in enterprise IT .. think about your average webserver and what it logs by default.

    1. Re:less verbose than I thought by Magic5Ball · · Score: 2

      The last few pages appear to be a log of every FB page he viewed. The search history you can grab for yourself from those logs. Requests for /search.php are searches (e.g. on 2009-02-17 19:31:10 shows a search for an individual named tom, and then a minute later for someone named kainlin, both followed by viewing of those individuals' profiles).

      --
      There are 1.1... kinds of people.
  12. From the Wall: by tbird81 · · Score: 2

    Friends/family:
    "How's Boston going for you? How's Bean Town?"

    Phil M:
    "Well, I've got a rheumatology exam, and I pulled a black 9mm Luger pistol, not far inside the door. Began to bind her hands with white plastic flexcuffs, but before I could complete this, she fought back. In our subsequent struggle I hit her in the skull with my gun, causing injuries I'd describe as serious but not fatal. I then shot her three times. One bullet lodged in her hip, while two bullets went straight through her, piercing her heart and lung. It's also quite cold here at the moment."

    Friends/family:
    "Really? I heard that it sometimes rains in Boston? I got an oncology exam coming up myself."

    Phil M:
    "Lol, sometimes. About 55 here I think."

  13. Duverger's Law by gd2shoe · · Score: 2

    Parent is AC troll.

    For those who think he might have a point, look up Duverger's law. We have a two party system due to the math of our election system, not because we fail to exercise free will. It's math, not principle that is at issue.

    --
    I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
  14. Re:Buttholes! Buttholes! Buttholes! Levodopa! by Reality+Master+301 · · Score: 5, Funny

    This calls for a new alternative mod point, "+1 Poetic"

  15. He worked for facebook? by dutchwhizzman · · Score: 2

    I'm fairly certain he worked for facebook at the time his account was last checked into, since 172.23.*.* is not routed on the Internet, being RFC 1918 compliant. Or did facebook log in to his account themselves?

    --
    I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
  16. Facebook should allow me to use the site this way! by Zoinky · · Score: 3, Funny

    The one thing that struck me is how much easier it is to navigate that profile in their subpoena response than it would if I was looking at it when using Facebook through a browser. They should really consider adding a "Subpoena view" view on their website, kind of like a "Print view", but even better yet!

  17. Redundant? by cultiv8 · · Score: 2

    This post was marked as redundant? Dear dog's anus farting loudly...

    --
    sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
  18. Are they certain? by PPH · · Score: 2

    The man committed suicide, which meant the police didn't care if the Facebook document was published elsewhere, after robbing two women and murdering a third.

    I don't know about this case. But there have been those who were falsely accused. And now the real perp. gets a look at what the cops know (and don't know). So he's got a chance to move the other bodies.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.