Zuckerberg’s view of social media privacy cited in recent case

Do privacy settings in social media really count for anything in court?
Seems Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is a voice of authority when it comes to analysing the realities of online privacy. In the recent case Fawcett v. Altieri et al, the court referenced a Tech Crunch interview with Zuckerberg when determining whether information shared ‘privately’ online should be kept that way or if it really is open slather because it was posted to a social media site.

The court agreed with Zuckerberg’s view that people are increasingly more comfortable with sharing information with family and friends on social media sites but drew the line at accepting that this then makes it open for public consumption, whether or not security settings are in place.

The decision was in response to a request from the defendant demanding full access to the plaintiff’s social media accounts because it had been locked down and couldn’t be accessed publicly. The court turned down the request, ruling that if the requesting party can’t provide evidence that information disclosed privately on social media sites could be relevant to the case, handing over full access to such records could be a costly, time consuming and ultimately fruitless exercise.