Facebook "Friends", 4th Amendment Privacy & Probable Cause

Originally published on From the Sidebar.

A recent court decision has added support to the idea that there is no privacy on the internet.

In United States v. Meregildo, defendant Melvin Colon moved to suppress evidence seized from his Facebook account pursuant to a search warrant.  Colon did not challenge the issuing court's decision that the search warrant application was supported by probable cause.  Rather, he challenged the government's method of collecting evidence to show probable cause in its application for the search warrant.  Colon's Facebook privacy settings allowed only his Facebook "friends" to view his profile.  One of these "friends," who happened to be a cooperating witness, allowed the government to use his account to access Colon's profile.  The government then collected information from Colon's profile to use as evidence of probable cause to support the search warrant.