Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
Judge Orders Divorcing Couple to Divulge Social Media Passwords – Really?
November 14, 2011
Social media has spawned some rogue judicial decisions and Forbes reported last week on yet another one.
Apparently, Judge Kennth Shluger in Connecticut ordered the attorneys for a divorcing couple to exchange their client's Facebook and dating website passwords. He also ordered that the parties not delete anything or atempt to prank each other by visiting the other's website and posting message pretending to be from the other party.
But seriously, where did he get the authority to ask for the keys to the social media sites? The other side has the right to be provided with responsive, non-privileged material only. When one business sues another, it is given the responsive, non-privileged data by the other side. You can't go fishing through all the file cabinets of the other party's office.
So why the divergence from well settled law? It seems to me that this is an unwise departure from precedent – we are on a slippery slope when we open up entire social media accounts for an adverse party to comb through. If it is isn't relevant, the right of privacy should be protected.
Our zone of privacy is growing ever smaller.
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