Facebook’s lawyer wants to get ‘poked’

Image via CrunchBase

When it comes to lawsuits, Facebook is a treasure trove of material. It can also come in handy for criminal investigations. The company gets dozens of inquiries every day from civil litigants and the po-po, said Mark Howitson, Facebook’s deputy general counsel, during a speech at LegalTech, the legal research industry’s trade show. Howitson says Facebook is committed to protecting our data though.

“Users want to know that we’ll fight for them, so that’s what we do,” said Howitson. Facebook is also required to protect us thanks to the Stored Communications Act, added to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act in 1986. Howitson seemed thankful — the Act helps to cut down on the amount of archive-mining work Facebook has to do.

Without a subpoena, Facebook will ignore the request, just as you would a friend request from a person you didn’t like in high school.

Even with a subpoena, Facebook puts up a fight. When a Virginia state board tried to compel Facebook to turn over information for an airline employee claiming worker’s compensation, Howitson said his response was: “F-in’ awesome.” (He preferred not to use the actual expletive in front of a room full of lawyers.) Facebook is hoping for a case that will go to a federal judge and clarify the company’s responsibilities to protect users’ privacy. It’s been a while since 1986, after all….

Unfortunately, the Virginia case petered out before Facebook could go to war:

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which currently determines Facebook’s legal policies, was passed in 1986, long before the advent of online social networking, let alone the smartphones through which many users access Facebook. A federal hearing could help clear up some of the confusion. “We’re itching for that fight,” he said.

Even when a subpoena is provided, the company still may decline to give information. For example, last year Facebook successfully fought the state of Virginia’s demands to hand over the contents of a user’s accounts to settle a dispute over workers’ compensation.

The Virginia Workers Compensation Commission had levied a $200-a-day fine against Facebook after the site refused to comply with a subpoena from an airline that previously employed a flight attendant. Facebook objected on privacy grounds, and eventually Virginia backed down. “We provided no data, and I’m happy about that,” Howitson said.

via Law.com – Facebook GC Tells Lawyers He’s Looking for a Fight.

Howitson talked about other attempts that have been made to invade social networkers’ privacy, like when Bozeman, Montana wanted government job applicants to include their social networking passwords in their applications and when Houston’s restaurant forced a hostess to give up her MySpace password so that supervisors could monitor employees’ activity in a private forum.

Those things are illegal. The legal workaround though is for an employer to friend employees and just monitor them that way. Remember that when you get a friend request from a boss.