Facebookfriend turns into Big Brother

Wow. Fuck them.

Yeah, word is places of employment have done this too. You got to keep your digital footprints clean.

Right to privacy groups have been screaming about exactly this kind of shit and the dangers of social networking ever since they became so prevelant and been poo-pooed by gen y's and z's who have no concept of the dangers of living your entire life in the public eye.

It was only a matter of time before shit like this started and I hope it scares these online, networked, plugged-in kids enough to realise that you can't just run around parading your life before the world without there being consequences. Privacy is fucking important.

Fucking idiots.

This'll become a spook story they'll tell their kids when they send them off to college, "Don't accept friend requests from strangers, they may be Johnny Law."

First of all, shut up, Rain Dog. There's a big difference between being a member of a site like Facebook and being Paris Hilton. "Living your life in the public eye?" GIve me a break, man, and go back to telling those kids to get off your lawn.

Second of all, this is thoroughly unsurprising. The camping/tourism/education industry has been doing background checks on staff members via the social networking sites for years. I've consulted with a couple of places about internet policies, and been in panels where these issues are discussed. I can tell you, for a fact, that the scorched earth policy of not hiring or firing someone based on something they wrote on a social network site was how it was done for a while, and how it probably still happens in the corporate world.

Overwhelmingly, though, the best solution for this is education, which is why I don't feel very much sympathy for the guy in the photo. If he was truly aware of the width and breadth of social networking, then he never would have accepted a friend request from someone he didn't know in the first place. That's rule number one. Rule number two is never accept a friend request from a boss or potential employer unless you've discussed it beforehand and made clear/understood why they want to be your friend. This happened to me at my last job -- one of my supervisors wanted to be my friend, and I avoided friending him for a while, simply because there's stuff on my profile that I wouldn't want an employer to see.

Of course, a lot of this has to do with personal responsiblity, with being aware that what you put on the internet via Facebook (or post on a message board, which is why I've always, and will continue to, use an alias on the boards I'm a member of) will be out there until you take it down or longer. That picture of yourself with a brewskie or status talking about how you got fucked up on Tanquaray and chronic will come back to haunt you, especially if you work in a high-profile or sensitive field, like public relations or education. It sucks that this guy got busted, but the more people are aware of what Facebook can be used for, the better they'll protect themselves.

(On an unrelated note, the police have used Facebook for positive ways as well -- there was a report in one of the local papers recently about a teenager accused of a crime who was able to use a posting he made on FB, with a timestamp, as an alibi.)

The final thing to keep in mind is that Facebook is well aware of the privacy issues in a lot of ways, and I'm very comfortable with the privacy controls they've set in. I have issues with how hard they can be to manage sometimes, but again -- I educated myself on how to use them, and it's safe to say that nobody sees anything I post that I don't want them to.

These kids are essentially stupid for not telling the cops "Suck my dick, I put apple juice in an empty beer bottle, we were taking pictures of a play I wrote for school, and you have no way of proving otherwise". Or insert any excuse you want, what is scary though, is kids still not knowing what will and won't hold up in a court of law. Seeing pictures of you drinking out of a beer bottle on Facebook won't , but blindly confessing when cops show you pictures will.

The concept of proportionality seems to be forgotten in relation to the right to privacy when it comes to the use of modern technology in criminal proceedings.

You know what the best privacy setting on Facebook is? DON'T POST ANYTHING ON FACEBOOK YOU DON'T WANT ANYONE ELSE TO SEE.

This. What the cops are doing is kind of a dick move, but legal. Never admit to anything. They can have videos of me snorting white powder off a glass coffee table, but that doesn't mean shit unless I confess or fail a drug test.

Cops can't arrest you for photos. They have to catch you in the act. These kids are morons for admitting anything.

Gonna have to agree with Chris Miller. I would have wadded the ticket up, threw it in the cops face, and said prove it.

I disagree with all the people saying "prove it". The problem is that if it gets drawn out in court and lets say I've said "I was practicing a play" as someone mentioned before. I image it would not take too long to find out "what play were you practicing, who are your other performers, etc". Sure you may be lucky that has a jury that sides with the defendant, but that jury can just as equally go "I don't believe you kid, enjoy your time in prision". I bet overall they got some suspended sentence for their plea.

Also they really didn't confess to anything, they pleaded no contest, which is basicly a "I'm not guilty but I will accept the punishment".

Oh, and yes the kids were idiots for putting photos of them drinking anyway. Honestly, why are people such idiots.

And Diva tell that to Michel Phelps

You don't have to make up a story. All you have to say is, "all you have a picture of me holding what looks like a beer bottle, prove I actually drank beer." or, "you have a picture of me drinking what looks like beer, prove it actually was beer." No law enforcement organization or agency is going to make you go to court over an MIP. They don't have the resources to prosecute pissant charges like that. And for sure nobody is going to jail.

I hope you wouldn't actually say that. The cop would probably just quote you in court. I image the fact that you immediatly asked the cop to prove his/her case rather than give an explanation of what you did would not bode well for most people in court. At most make certain to have a lawyer provided for you before speaking to the cops.

It looks like this police force did have the resources to do. I doubt they are charging people without expecting someone as some point in time to plead not guilty. Also considering that captioning is often avaliable for photos, I wonder if any of the photos containted anything like "me drinking a bud" or something just below it.

But, lets just assume for now its just a photo. While you may be right on holding a beer bottle. I almost certain that if you are being photographed drinking the beer it will basicly go against you. If I were a juror I would highly doubt a kid who claimed "well it only looks like I'm drinking beer". The circumstatal evidence of the photograph alone would probably be enough to convict you.

There is a big difference and I wasn't saying that its in any way equivilant, hence why I never even mentioned celebrities in the first place.

...but thanks for your typically predictable diplomatic response in disagreeing with me Rath.

Always a pleasure, never a grinding, crushing, boring chore.

I was joking. I thought that I had made clear that when I bust your balls, there's no malice behind it.

Just thinking here - I've been applying for new jobs, and I had an odd friend request from some random hottie.

After reading this I am curious as to whether or not that was some underhanded HR person trying to do a background check.

Innocent until proven guilty. Kind of how our justice system works, or is supposed to work. Saying "prove it" to a cop in this situation will result in the cop saying "Well....I will.....next time.......or something.....".

Oh, and since you brought up Michael Phelps, you might want to actually investigate what you're talking about before being an expert. Here, let me Google that for you:

The only reason the cops bothered touching that case was because he's a celebrity, and it was all over the newspapers, so they had to save face and look like they gave a shit about a guy smoking a bong at a college party.

A lot of dick swinging going on. I would have a great laugh watching any of these theories on how to respond to the cops be put into practice.

I think our sarcasm from both sides has the potential of being lost on both of us in a written capacity sometimes mate.

No narkiness here.





...now get off my fucking lawn.

You're always just best not saying a damn thing.

I'm not saying deck the cop or pull a gun on him, and I'm mostly kidding about giving attitude, but seriously, if the cop says "Son, we have this picture of you drinking a beer, and we're gonna charge you", you're pretty stupid if you don't say at least "Officer, I wasn't drinking beer in that picture, and you have no physical evidence that that was beer in the bottle".
It's a PICTURE of a beer. Not admissable. Chewer lawyers, what say ye? Would this even go to court?

I applogize, I forgot that they did not charge him.

I applogize, I forgot that they did not charge him.

But, you state its a picture of a beer would not be admissable. Why would that be? I image those getting charged are getting lawyers even if their just state funded ones, someone would be telling them "oh don't worry about that picture, we can easily just argue thats its only looks like your drinking a beer" if its was true that a picture couldn't be used against them. I image if it went to court it would be the prosecution arguing "thats a beer the defendand is drinking". The defense would argue "no its not a beer, its apple juice" and it would be up to a judge/jury to decide if the prosecution had proven its case.

It is suppose to be innocent until proven guilty, but each judge/jury often has a different standards on what constitutes "reasonable doubt".

As someone above stated, though, if the kid in the picture did any sort of protesting, it likely would never go to court. The cops don't want to rustle up the sort of legal bees nest that would amount from a case like this for a simple MIP charge.

Cop: "Mr DerekT? ...This photograph recently came into our possession...We have been informed that it was YOU in the bear-costume...Could you please come and answer a few questions down at the station."

Spoiler: Ends in tasers.

On my (awesome) friend's facebook page:

Cute, but needs more snorting/injecting...

Don't let Sketchy Griff see those pics.

The question is, would you bust out the famous quote "Don't taser me bro!" while that was being done?

Also, those pics are awesome. They could only be made better if she was pretending to smoke a big ass cigar while drinking.

I think that's exactly what happened to Kate Moss. They had the mobile phone footage showing her snorting a white powder off a table but she ultimately couldn't be charged because it couldn't be proven what the powder was.

Instead of accepting the friend request, can't you just send them a message asking them to explain who they are? That could sort out who's sent you a request by mistake, people who you know or knew that you need your memory jogged about - and well law enforcement since if they lie and then use the information from your account through that added friend, the evidence they've found could all be thrown out of court, right?

I'm sure your going for some sort of joke there, but its flying right above my head.

The facebook-scouring cop could be fulfilling a more worthwhile service. Like submitting pics to peopleofwalmart.com

it looks more like a dog to me...

...whereas to me it looks more like a demon of the netherworld.

E'wok Na'vi

What kind of a monster does that?

I mean, Bud Light?