Originally published on CyberInquirer.
I recently attended a CLE that had a panel of social
media experts who were discussing the role of Facebook, Twitter and
MySpace in litigation. During a lull in the question and answer
session, the Facebook attorney quipped: "you know, Facebook
has already given you everything that you've ask for..."
Immediately, the audience lifted their heads from their
Blackberries and newspapers and started paying attention after this
cryptic remark.
The attorney explained that Facebook recently permitted total
access to users' Facebook archives through a link on
profile's Account Settings. A user's archive consists of
every post, photograph and chat that the user has posted to
Facebook; including posts that have been deleted and untagged
photographs. To access the data, the user clicks on his/her Account
Settings; and at the bottom of the Account Settings box, there is a
hyperlink that states: "Download a copy of your Facebook
data."