The above symbol, which is globally known, just may become your worst nightmare. For some people, it already is. In the court room, domestic issues are being helped along by facebook. Facebook has become divorce lawyers new best friend (Gonzalez, 2010). After all, if you "check in" at a bar and tag a person whom its suspected you are cheating on your spouse with, exactly how are you going to explain that when it is brought up in court? According to Gonzalez (2010), facebook has become the third most important source for evidence in divorce and custody cases, with cell phone records and emails leading.
Does the above photo look familiar? Many of you may have friends that upload these types of pictures and "tag" you in them. What many people do not realize, and this applies to any photo that you are tagged in, is that when you are tagged those photos are not just available to your friends to see but also the friends of the individual that posted it AND the friends of anyone else that was tagged in that photo. As I mentioned above, cameras and photos have enabled us to take photos anywhere, anytime, and we don't always know when are pictures are taken, or where it might end up.
According to Wilson (2012), Venice Beach, a rapper and artist was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Shortly after he was released he is noted for tweeting that the prosecutors are trying to admit over 100 pages from his social media networks (one of which is his facebook) as evidence (Wilson, 2012).
Not everyone is dumb when it comes to facebook. As we get older, and mature, many of us have edited our friends list to include only those that we trully know. Not only that but the option to mark your information as "friends only" is an additional protection. However, this cannot always protect us in court. According to McMillan (2011), Eric Sinrod, a San Fran lawyer is noted as saying "a judicial willingness to compel the disclosure of Facebook material to the other side in litigation". Now what does this mean? Basically it is means that lawyers can submit a request to have your facebook password revealed so that they can get into your account.
Many people do not think about these types of things when they are out having fun on the weekend, tagging their friends, and tagging the bars they are at. This is extremely important to U.S. citizens, because we need to know how to protect ourselves. It is also very important to us in this class, as students getting ready to go out and seek jobs in the criminal justice field. I have already been repeatedly warned that when I am applying to departments I may want to do away with my facebook page, because some departments require you to surrender your password so they can go through it. Not a lot of people think about this, and it's definitely something I think we all need to be as informed as possible on.
Sources:
Gonzalez, V. (2010, June 13). Facebook evidence used in court against cheating, drinking spouses. Star News Online. Retrieved from: http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20100613/articles/100619858
Wilson, S. (2012, March 6). Venice rapper 'killer reese one' says facebook posts, tweets, lyrics used against him in court. LA Weekly. Retrieved from: http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/03/venice_rapper_killer_reese_one.php
McMillan, G. (2011, May 25). Even your "friends only" facebook material can be used in court. Time Techland. Retrieved from: http://techland.time.com/2011/05/25/even-your-friends-only-facebook-material-can-be-used-in-court/
First things first... I get annoyed when news outlets scapegoat rap when a person who happens to rap commits a crime. I'm not a betting man but I'd put my money behind the idea that this guy couldn't even sell a CD in his own neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteI've always been leery of Facebook. People make fun of me for it but I don't trust Facebook. I'll save my conspiracy theories but one thing that you mentioned that I don't like is the tagging feature. I figure if I want someone to see a photo of me I'll show it to them. I don't need strangers or casual acquaintances knowing every minute detail of my life! So yeah, I have my account locked down. I think. You can never tell because they're always changing privacy policies without telling anyone.
I was surprised to read how some police departments ask for your Facebook password. I would never give up that information. It's unAmerican!
I forgot to post this link I found! This guy robbed a bank & took pictures with the money & bragged about it on Facebook!! What a dummy!
ReplyDeletehttp://boston.barstoolsports.com/random-thoughts/bank-robber-big-fan-of-talking-about-his-heists-on-facebook-gets-caught/
This article is very relevant to us because we are about to graduate and try and find jobs. I recently noticed that on facebook if someone is tagged in a picture that I posted all his or her friends can see it also. I really dislike that feature because if I put my settings to private, then why would I want my friends facebook friends/acquaintances to see it? I feel in this way facebook can’t be as "private" as it claims. This is unfortunate because I like to share things on facebook with my friends but its seems like it isn’t even worth the risk. I am also shocked that police agencies require a facebook password. Like common, how many screening processes do police officers really need to go though? It’s getting ridiculous. I feel that it’s sad that sometimes private things you post on facbeook for your friends may haunt you while searching for a job.
ReplyDeleteYes Yes YES! Facebook is a curse, and it can't be said enough how much some people truely dispise it. I personally have a facebook, but I have a friend list that consists of about 15 friends and I log into it maybe once a week at best. I do plan to delete it very soon, but this is beside the point. I can go on for days about how much I hate facebook, and the fact that I see people having it up on their laptops while a techer is lecturing, I mean come on! But who remembers that post earlier in the year about the guy who tied up his one year old daughter and then put pictures of it on facebook. The people that use facebook stupidly deserve everything they get. I think its a great idea to have courts and emplyers be able to look into your facebook, however only if they have reason to. Theres a certain line of privacy that can't be crossed. But if your dumb enough to post a picture of yourself smoking marijuana on facebook, you deserve to get caught.
ReplyDeleteYes, Facebook is something that can cause you a lot of trouble. People posting photos of you when your out at the bar making faces that you may not agree with but your friends still tag you in them, it is like they just do not care and just want the rest of the world to see them. People need to realize this is Facebook, once it goes live even when you delete the photo their is still an image copy still sitting on the Facebook database hidden from your eyes as a duplicate copy. If your friends tag you in dumb things you probably should delete them to make sure your Facebook is safe for others viewing, you do not want to not get a job because of your friends.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post! Facebook has become a dangerous place, especially for developing individuals such as ourselves. I also have been warned several times about facebook when it comes to interviewing in the criminal justice field. But it is not just the criminal justice field that looks at this! Recently at State Farm they granted access to facebook to the call centers. What they did not disclose is that when you access your facebook at work State Farms gains access to your account and has the right to use the information they find against you. Because of this, even though we can access it, most people chose not too! Personally, I choose not to go on facebook at work not because it is filled with inappropriate things but because it is a little scary knowing they would have access to all my information!
ReplyDeleteI think everything i wanted to say has been said, but we as facebook users just have to be careful of what we put on facebook.
ReplyDeleteNice blog.
ReplyDeleteEveryone should be fine on social networks as long as we're not doing anything we're not supposed to be doing. Facebook use is as guilty as Twitter use. I cannot count how many times people have posted twitpics of marijuana, paraphernalia, etc. This is just getting ridiculous.
That divorce case you spoke of is just just incredibly dumb on that man's part. It's amazing to me how stupid some people can be by just cheating period, let alone checking into a bar with another woman on Facebook.
Facebook will be a Criminal Justice students worst enemy if it is not maintained properly. Now it can also be an investigator's best tool if you want it to be. If you really think about what you said it is the perfect tracking tool for a person with all of the apps that check you in, you really can not have any privacy. I do not want people to know where I am at, at all times. But, there are people out there the do not care about what they post up on Facebook, I was one of those people for the longest time and need to still clean it up a bit. But as for an example one of the people that I am friends with posted a status about him and another friend doing excessive speeding on the highway and doing 30 miles in under 15 minutes on a motorcycle. Really! how stupid can you be? I remember when Facebook used to just be for College kids and just for fun, and how much people are looking into it now to find out who a person is. I believe this to be an invasion of our privacy but at the same time we need to be careful of what we post.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Serena
DeleteThis was a good post. I never knew Facebook was used for divorce cases, but people who cheat and put it on Facebook are stupid anyways. I agree with your post, our rights need to be protected, and people need to be more careful especially when looking for jobs.
ReplyDeleteI liked the post. I agree with all of it, we must protect ourselves but we must also use common sense when posting pictures and such. Employers are using Facebook in the hiring process these days. What you have posted on your Facebook may or may not get you the job you are looking for in the future.
ReplyDeleteMany people are very stupid when it comes to what they put on facebook, they are not thinking about the negative consequences of their drinking pictures of bullying posts. The public can see many of these things if it is not set to private and these posts can even effect your chances of obtaining a job. However, if you own facebook is set to private then you are clearly assuming that this is your private facebook for only friends to see. I think that the government and the law is completely invading your privacy when they hack your account just to see who you were with if you were cheating on your husband or wife. Facebook should not be taken into account. obviously if there are major threats such as terrorism it is a completely different story, overall i think that no one should be able to access your account but you.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that everyone needs to start protecting themselves better if they want to continue to use Facebook. Just because you are tagged in a picture where you were not drinking that night doesn't mean that the people around you look innocent. Our world is completely wrapped around technology, and people make judgments on others just based on what they see on sites such as Facebook. I think it is important to start minimizing the use of social sites such as Facebook, especially at our age, because it causes a lot more problems then we may realize. It's crazy how agencies can gain information on you now a days, so before something is posted that could make you look bad all of the necessary precautions should be taken.
ReplyDeleteI have always been really careful of what I put on Facebook. I have my settings (at least I think I do) so that nobody can tag me, check me in, or even search for me. I am also very cautious of who I am with and if they are taking pictures to make sure that I can get out of the pictures if I think that something might come of them in the future. Since so many people in this class want to become police officers and the rest want to do something else in the field of Criminal Justice, I think that everyone should be particularly careful about what they put on Facebook and other social networking sites in order to protect themselves.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lot of people do not realize is that with this new technological era that we are in, companies have found ways to study us and access our info without us even knowing. For example, Target was able to accurately predict that a girl was pregnant even before her own father knew. The father was furious at Target until he found out that she actually was pregnant. How did Target do this you ask? They kept track of everything she bought and noticed a buying pattern which is associated with women who are expecting a child so they sent her coupons for baby supplies. Target isn't the only company doing this and it gets a lot worse than that. Basically, use the internet, but keep in mind that whatever is on the internet will stay there, even if you delete it.
ReplyDelete