Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
How Much Data is Facebook Giving Law Enforcement Under Secret Warrants?
July 21, 2011
The short answer is that no one knows.
According to Reuters, since 2008, federal judges have authorized at least two dozen warrants to search Facebook accounts to the FBI, the DEA and ICE. The investigations have involved such things as arson, rape and terrorrism.
What interested me most is that these warrants demands a user's "Neoprint" and Photoprint" – terms I had never heard before which apparently appear in law enforcement manuals and refer to a Facebook compilation of data that the users themselves do not have access to. So much for Facebook's claim that the "Download Your Account" button gives you everything that Facebook itself possesses.
Reuters apparently gleaned some of this information from Westlaw, where it found that at least 11 warrants have been granted since the beginning of 2011, double the number granted in all of 2010. The real truth is that no one knows how many warrants have been granted since it is likely that many records have been sealed. Facebook could tell us, of course, but declines to do so. It does say that it pushes back against law enforcement "fishing expeditions." Now that gives me a lot of comfort because my trust in Facebook is so absolute.
That "trust" is buttressed by the fact that Facebook doesn't tell users about the warrants to give them a chance to challenge those warrants legally. Why not Facebook? Twitter (and others) have adopted a policy notifiying users of law enforcement warrants. If Facebook is as interested in user rights as it claims, it is time to rectify this omission.
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