Cops told: Er, no, you need a wiretap order if you want real-time Facebook snooping

New Jersey cops must apply for a wiretap order — not just a warrant — for near-continual snooping on suspects' Facebook accounts, according to a unanimous ruling by that US state's Supreme Court.  Thursday's decision overturned a lower court's ruling that said a search warrant was sufficient to compel Meta's social network to …

[OhForF']

What a strange thing - Facebook prevails in court and i like the courts decision.

[M.V. Lipvig]

I was going to post almost exactly that. It sucks when you have to support people you hate because, for some strange twist, they're doing the right thing. Even though I'm 100 percent certain Faecesbook is doing it for the wrong reasons, doing the right thing is still the right thing to do.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm completely unworried because my Facebook account is " " ... that's a blank ... I spoke to Facebook in 2007 and was told that they would prosecute me if I tried to setup the Facebook account again after they had canceled my first attempt the day before. So if you say that Facebook is shitty then I think you are saying nice things about them.

[trindflo]

And...?

You say things like this:

"they would prosecute me if I tried to setup the Facebook account again"

And don't provide us with a playbook! How do I get Facebook to block me? (short of attempting a coup d'etat)

[that one in the corner]

Turn over access to a user's future posts

Facebook is employing Time Lords now?

What if I then choose *not* to post the message, does FB vanish forever into a temporal paradox?

Or having vanished, will it be immediately replaced by something even more bizarre?

[Anonymous Coward]

A commonsense rule:

If it exists at the time of the creation of the warrant (or maybe when it is presented), it's stored data. If not, it's wiretapping.

[xyz123]

Anyone using messenger to run a criminal enterprise....

You've seen people shilling SCAMway and "essential" oils (which are neither essential nor oils) etc?

[TRT]

Can we charge the police...

with wasting court time? This is such an obvious and flagrant attempt to snoop without the correct legal process... If they'd even found anything they'd have had that evidence thrown out for having been obtained illegally.

I mean, a warrant to obtain communications in the investigation of a crime is fine... I mean, communications which showed the planning of a crime or crimes prior to the commitment of a crime... but this request was for communications not yet in existence. Why? Prevention of a crime? Attempting to intercept an admission of guilt? Definitely interception anyway. Obviously so. I'm shocked they even had the cheek to try it on.

[VicMortimer]

Re: Can we charge the police...

These are American cops we're talking about. American cops are all criminals.

[david 12]

Surprise

In a surprise finding, courts have held that courts must be consulted and must be in the loop.

Very human. Lawyers, plumbers, electricians, nurses, teachers, accountants, farmers and truck drivers hold similar views about their importance to humanity.

[Boolian]

Re: Surprise

That list pretty much sums up who has covert access to your data under UK RIPA* law, among many, many other *cough 'agencies with investigative powers' and only omitting "...some chap I bumped into in the mess the other day called Bernard"

*https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_Investigatory_Powers_Act_2000

[Ropewash]

Re: Surprise

Soon to be;

Remand and Aggregation of Personal Expression

[Anonymous Coward]

the fundamental error

was to not get a FISA warrant, they are not subjected to review nor appeal and are granted automatically.