Facebook warrents by leo

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-warrants-by-law-enforcement-agencies-surge-2011-07

Requests for warrants to investigate the Facebook
accounts of known suspects is surging.
The U.S . Federal Bureau of Investigation , Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, Drug Enforcement
Administration and other such agencies often
gain access to the social networking accounts with the
user’ s knowledge.
The cases typically range from acts of terrorism , to
rape and even arson. Law enforcement will generally
scour the accounts, delving into everything from
friend’ s lists, calendars, events, posting updates, links,
videos, photos and will even look back at rejected
friend requests. Under U.S . laws , neither Facebook
nor the government has to inform a user when an
account is being searched by law officials.
According to Reuters, at least two dozen warrants
have been granted by federal judges to search the
Facebook accounts of suspects. In addition, another
11 warrants have been authorized by federal agencies
this year alone, nearly double that for 2010 .
Not one of the warrants have been challenged
regarding violating a person’ s Fourth Amendment
rights against unlawful search and seizure. The exact
number of warrants served on Facebook is not easy to
figure out because a few records are sealed, and
warrant applications oftentimes involve case names
that are not typical according to Reuters.
In a telephone interview with Reuters, Facebook’s
Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan, did not disclose the
number of warrants that had been served on the
company. He said Facebook is mindful of user privacy
and that it does not openly welcome law- enforcement
“fishing expeditions.”
The Facebook search warrants typically demand a
user’ s “neoprint” and “photoprint, ” Facebook terms for
profile and photo information that are unavailable to
account holders — these words appear in manuals for
law enforcement agencies on how to request data
from Facebook. The manuals, which are said to be
posted on various public- advocacy websites ,
according to Reuters, appear to have been prepared
by Facebook, although a spokesman for the company
declined to confirm their authenticity.
Reportedly, Twitter and some other social networking
sites have adopted policies to contact customers when
their accounts are being investigated with regards to
legal matters.
Readers, what do you think about the surge in law
enforcement requests to search Facebook users
accounts?