Be Careful What You Tweet!
From now on, anything you tweet can and will be held against you in a court of law.
That’s the takeaway of a new ruling by New York criminal court judge. In a recent case, he ordered Twitter to turn over all of a user’s tweets from last year. When Twitter tried to block the order, claiming it would violate privacy laws, the judge ruled that your right to privacy does not apply to information you post on public social networks, like Twitter.
As he put it, “There can be no reasonable expectation of privacy in a tweet sent around the world.” In fact, he compared tweeting to giving an eyewitness account of a crime to a newspaper. He says once the information’s out there in print, you can’t suddenly take it back and claim it’s “private."
Why is this ruling a big deal? Experts say it’s because a growing number of courts are using Twitter data in criminal and civil cases. In fact, this year alone, Twitter has received more than 700 requests from courts across North America, and this new ruling sets a precedent that allows judges to demand Twitter data, even without a warrant!
You may be asking: “Why would a judge care about what I tweet?” It’s because every message you send contains embedded information, like your GPS location, and the exact time of your tweet, and experts say that information could potentially be used as evidence to place you at the scene of a crime, even if you later delete the tweet, or the tweet has nothing to do with the crime. In other words: This new ruling is another reminder to think carefully about what you post on public Websites, because if the ruling stands, it means your posts may someday come back to haunt you.
That’s the takeaway of a new ruling by New York criminal court judge. In a recent case, he ordered Twitter to turn over all of a user’s tweets from last year. When Twitter tried to block the order, claiming it would violate privacy laws, the judge ruled that your right to privacy does not apply to information you post on public social networks, like Twitter.
As he put it, “There can be no reasonable expectation of privacy in a tweet sent around the world.” In fact, he compared tweeting to giving an eyewitness account of a crime to a newspaper. He says once the information’s out there in print, you can’t suddenly take it back and claim it’s “private."
Why is this ruling a big deal? Experts say it’s because a growing number of courts are using Twitter data in criminal and civil cases. In fact, this year alone, Twitter has received more than 700 requests from courts across North America, and this new ruling sets a precedent that allows judges to demand Twitter data, even without a warrant!
You may be asking: “Why would a judge care about what I tweet?” It’s because every message you send contains embedded information, like your GPS location, and the exact time of your tweet, and experts say that information could potentially be used as evidence to place you at the scene of a crime, even if you later delete the tweet, or the tweet has nothing to do with the crime. In other words: This new ruling is another reminder to think carefully about what you post on public Websites, because if the ruling stands, it means your posts may someday come back to haunt you.
