Civil Liberties

Judge's Facebook Snooping Challenged

EFF asked California's highest court to review a judge's decision forcing a juror to turn over the content of his Facebook postings to the parties to the case

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When a judge forces you to "consent" to a disclosure of your private electronic communications, have you really consented?  No.

EFF today asked the California Supreme Court to review a decision of a lower court that forced a juror to "consent" to allow the content of his Facebook postings to be turned over to the parties to the case, after it was discovered that he had been improperly posting about the case on his Facebook wall during a trial. The case is called Juror Number One v. Superior Court

At issue is the Stored Communications Act, which generally prevents Facebook, and most other service providers, from disclosing the content of your communications in civil lawsuits.  EFF helped confirm this rule in a case called O'Grady v. Superior Court (also called Apple v. Does) a few years ago.