Evidence Commons^™

Discovering Facebook: Social Network Subpoenas And The Stored Communications Act, Ryan A. Ward

Ryan A Ward

The Stored Communications Act is an unnecessarily complicated statute. Originally designed to protect the privacy of Internet users as the Internet existed in 1986, courts have been made to “extract[] operating principles from [the SCA’s] tangled legal framework” and apply these to new Internet technologies. Social networks present one of the latest challenges in this regard. Courts have taken inconsistent approaches in applying the SCA to social network information and many of these cases have obvious flaws. Even the Crispin decision, which represents a step in the right direction, provides incomplete guidance in determining whether social networks should be protected …