Even on apps like Snapchat, where messages and videos have explicit expiration dates, old posts have come back to haunt users in criminal court.
BOSTON (CN) — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court struggled Wednesday to figure out whether police can use trickery to conduct unlimited surveillance of social media accounts even if they have no reason to think that anyone did anything wrong.
The justices seemed to think that officers can generally conduct undercover operations but they were troubled by the idea that nothing on social media is truly private.
“The breadth of this is what is worrisome,” Justice Scott Kafker complained to Boston-area prosecutor Ian MacLean. “I get that cops are doing this to detect kiddie porn, but you’re saying they can just go out on social media exploring. You may be right, but it’s concerning that they can just go through people’s social media and go hunting. You’re saying they can do that, right?”
“Yes,” said MacLean, an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County. “In the same way cops can approach random people on a street corner.”
“But people’s whole lives are on social media,” Kafker shot back. “I’m not saying you’re wrong but it’s concerning. The problem we have is social media are as revealing of our personal lives as our houses.”
The defendant in the case, Averyk Carrasquillo, was arrested shortly after posting a video on Snapchat that showed him with a gun. He is not allowed to possess one as a former felon, but the government...
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