Reuters reports on the increasing instances of U.S. law-enforcement agencies like the FBI, DEA and ICE getting warrants to search for info on people on Facebook.
“The Facebook search warrants typically demand a user’s “Neoprint” and “Photoprint” — terms that Facebook has used to describe a detailed package of profile and photo information that is not even available to users themselves.” Reuters says these agencies have obtained at least 11 warrants to search Facebook since the beginning of this year – two times as many as last year. These warrants haven’t been challenged. And, it’s possible people have no idea their FB info is being scrubbed. Reuters recounts the case of the Satanists: “In several recent cases, however, Facebook apparently did not inform account-holders or their lawyers about government snooping. Last year, several weeks after police apprehended four young Satanists who burned down a church in Pomeroy, Ohio, an FBI agent executed a search warrant on Facebook seeking data about two of the suspects. All four ultimately pleaded guilty and received sentences of eight to ten years in state prison (along with a message of forgiveness from a church official who called the sentence “God’s time out,” and presented them with a Bible). It is unclear if data obtained from the warrant was used in the investigation. Lawyers for the two defendants were unaware of the searches until they were contacted by Reuters.”
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