This article is more than 1 year old

Facebook fails to block NY DA's fat warrants for profiles of suspected September 11 fraudsters

All your user data belongs to them over there

A decision by a New York judge means that people's Facebook profiles are an open book to prosecutors armed with a warrant, despite the firm's best efforts.

Back in July 2013, the New York District Attorney obtained court warrants to access the full profiles and message databases of 381 NY Facebook users suspected of defrauding the social security system. They included former police and firefighters who were claiming disability and some people claiming mental illness after the September 11 attacks.

Facebook contested the warrants, saying that they were too broad, that there was no limit set on how long the police could hold the data, and because the warrants included a non-disclosure agreement that would keep its users in the dark about the fact that they were being spied upon. The social network said it was the largest warrant request it had ever received, by a factor of ten.

It lost its case and handed over the accounts in December, but continued to fight the case on appeal, in association with the ACLU, Google, and other tech giants. On Tuesday its latest court case ended in failure.

"[The] Supreme Court's summary denial of Facebook's motion to quash the search warrants was proper because there is no constitutional or statutory right to challenge an alleged defective warrant before it is executed," wrote Justice Dianne Renwick.

"The key role of the judicial officer in issuing a search warrant is described generally by the Fourth Amendment and more specifically by state statutes. None of these sources refer to an inherent authority for a defendant or anyone else to challenge an allegedly defective warrant before it is executed."

Despite the result, the case isn't over yet. Of the 381 people surveilled, only 62 have ever been charged with fraud and larceny, and they are likely to contest the validity of the search warrants, and the ensuing storage of their data.

"We continue to believe that overly broad search warrants – granting the government the ability to keep hundreds of people's account information indefinitely – are unconstitutional and raise important concerns about the privacy of people's online information," a Facebook spokesman told The Register.

"The court's decision today recognized our concerns about the scope and retention of the requests, and we are considering our options to keep fighting on behalf of the people who use our service." ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like