If you’re not already particularly picky about who you friend on Facebook, you might want to think about rejiggering those privacy settings. According to GigaOm, a New York City federal judge ruled in a recent racketeering trial that it’s legal for police to view your Facebook profile if one of your friends grants them permission. Better start sniffing out the rats on your friends list.
Writes GigaOm:
In an order issued on Friday, US District Judge William Pauley III ruled that accused gangster Melvin Colon can’t rely on the Fourth Amendment to suppress Facebook evidence that led to his indictment….The informant’s Facebook friendship served to open an online window onto Colon’s alleged gangster life, revealing messages he posted about violent acts and threats to rival gang members. The government used this information to obtain a search warrant for the rest of Colon’s Facebook account.
In related news, Ars Technica discovered that Facebook is now actually erasing the pictures you delete from its servers, so if you’re worried about any of your friends narcing on you, you should probably start deleting right about…now.
