http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/08/technology/law_enforcement_social_media/index.htm
"As the popularity of social networking spreads, law enforcement agencies are tapping into these sites to nab criminals, tax evaders and other wrongdoers, and gather evidence to support their cases."
This article was very interesting! It pertains to almost everyone out there these days. I agree that the authorities have a right to go on someones myspace or facebook if they are investigating them. There is a line though that should not be crossed. If the authorities are abusing their rights then they should be held accountable. The only information they should be allowed to receive is what is made public to the website. Myspace is all set up to help law enforcement, they have a hot line and all, but they will only help if what is going on is following the laws. Twitter and Facebook, only help in the case of an extreme emergency. I think this is all fair because as long as you post stuff about your life on the web anyone can find it. If you are hiding something or want to be private then don't post your business all over the Internet, you never know who will google you these days. Today even businesses are googling potential employers, so everyone needs to be more cautious of what they post on social sites because it could come back to haunt you!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I completely agree that if you’re going to post something on a public domain, than law enforcement should also be privy to the information. Also, the article states that a warrant is needed for personal messages that are sent between individuals and are not available to the public. This could be compared to law enforcement obtaining a warrant to search your home and personal belongings…which I believe is fair. The section of this article that bothers me is the very last few sentences: “…authorities may be overstepping their boundaries, especially when creating false profiles and online identities to collect information,” and “…law enforcement is allowed to lie, but some things seem to be crossing the line…we want more specific guidelines to make sure they're not abusing their power.” I think that as since the World Wide Web is still ‘new’ in a sense, that more laws will be put in place to protect individuals, groups, companies, etc. and also laws/rules that law enforcement officials will have to adhere to when obtaining information from the internet.
ReplyDelete