Social Networking Services are Treasure Trove for Civil Cases
Unlimited data retention and information sharing policies of social networking service providers are creating privacy problems for users. Attorney's in civil cases are routinely subpoenaing online records of social network users when involved in a case. Increasingly consumers, and policy makers are joining privacy advocates in asking what do social networking services know about their users and with whom are they sharing that information. Facebook has come under pressure for manipulating customer privacy settings from restrictions on sharing to broadly sharing user content. Google's Buzz application without notice or consent converted Gmail users e-mail contacts into a social networking service.
What sites such as Facebook and Google know and whom they tell, By Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post Foreign Service, May 29, 2010
