Law Enforcement Archives

Could your Social Media posts be used against you in court?

The short answer…yes and no.

Want to know how? Read on!

Most of us use social media to share pictures, exciting events or happenings, uplifting videos, and funny quotes. But some of us also use it as a platform for our political, religious, and social views as well as our downright brutally honest thoughts and feelings. Whether we transmit our rants to hundreds of eager listeners or in private chat threads, we should clearly understand the consequences of our actions.

“Sharing a public rant about your ex-spouse or former employer online may not seem problematic – a lot of people do that to get support and some cheering,” said Sherwin Arzani, attorney at Citywide Law Group. “However, you should remember that social media is evidence and discoverable. Depending on the situation, your opinions can either hurt and/or help your court case.”

Your social media posts can be used as evidence against you
Courts today are more than willing to admit social media content as a form of evidence both for and against you.

In a recent personal injury lawsuit, Largent v. Reed, the plaintiff claimed that a recent accident had left her with severe physical and mental pain. During the course of the trial, defendants presented the court with post-accident photos posted to her Facebook account. These photos demonstrated the plaintiff was clearly feeling well enough to engage in her daily activities such as attending the gym and enjoying life. With this information, the court ordered the plaintiff to hand over her Facebook login information for further inspection.

The lesson? Never assume that anything you share online (publicly or in private messages) is fully confidential. “If you are involved in any case or proceeding, or even a case or proceeding that is reasonably foreseeable, think twice before posting anything that can be self-incriminating or used against you in the courtroom,” said Joseph Fantini, attorney at Rosen Injury Lawyers.

Public social media posts count as legally obtained evidence
Contrary to popular belief, it is legal to use communications garnered from social media sites as evidence. Judge Michael Corriero explains that “the prohibition against using illegally obtained evidence applies primarily, essentially solely, to law enforcement. It doesn’t apply to another civilian.” If you have exchanged self-incriminating messages with someone privately, maybe through a messenger app, those would be admitted by most courts without any issue.

According to Ambrosio Rodriguez, a criminal defense attorney at The Rodriguez Law Group, the same applies to photographs, taken and published by you or someone else. “If a friend takes and publishes a controversial picture showing you drunk in public you may act against them for unfairly depicting you as drunk. But if you were actually drinking at that time, these photos will be used as evidence against you in a relevant proceeding,” he explained.

Deleting your social media content during trials is not smart
“When you are involved in a lawsuit, the rules of evidence apply to your social media content just as they do to the discoverability and admissibility of other forms of evidence,” said Ryan Van Steenis, an attorney at Ajamie LLP, in Houston, Texas. “It is not advisable to delete the content you have shared online. Depending on the circumstances, such activity can be considered serious. A court may find that a negative inference should be held against you for the destruction or spoliation of relevant evidence. This can have adverse consequences to your case, and attorneys representing clients with social media properties should advise their clients how to manage their social media content accordingly. A client is permitted to adjust their privacy settings, but do not take any further actions that the court may deem as suspicious.”

And what you think is “permanently” deleted content” can actually be recovered using new-gen forensic recovery methods. Even if your personal device is password protected, it does not mean that the authorities cannot legally get access to it. Suspects and parties undertaking a trial can be served with a disclosure notice demanding them to reveal all passwords. Failure to comply can lead to further penalties. Everything you share on social media can become part of the public record – whether you want it or not.

So how can you stay safe?
Be a selective sharer. Always stay on the safe side and don’t share anything that you would not otherwise tell freely in public.
Consider using one of the best VPN services available. This helps keep your online activities protected against snooping, interference and censorship, according to TechNadu.
Be careful where you click. Risky apps and dangerous links sent via social media can give hackers access to spy on you, according to CBS News. Also, don’t respond to messages from strangers.

The Dark Web: What’s New?

Even if you haven’t heard of the term “dark web”, you can probably discern that it’s not a great place to be.

This anonymous, virtually untraceable area of the internet makes it ripe for illegal activity.

When you surf the internet, you’re just scratching the surface. “Only about 5% of the internet is actually indexed by search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing,”said Justin Yapp, a PhD student studying cyber security. The other 95% is the “deep web,” with most of the internet unreachable for search engines.

The dark web is an even smaller and more hidden chunk and requires special software — like Tor, which stands for “the onion router.” The name comes from the layers of encryption, which are like the layers of an onion. The information bounces from computer to computer around the world, peeling off encrypted layers until it reaches its destination. It’s anonymous and virtually untraceable — even for law enforcement. “There’s a lot of illegal activity that goes on,” Yapp said. The dark web is notorious for drugs, weapons, child porn and for selling stolen personal information.

Here’s what you should know about dark web websites:

There is bad stuff, and crackdowns means it’s harder to trust

Many dark web marketplaces for drugs and hacking services featured corporate-level customer service and customer reviews, making navigating simpler and safer for newbies. But now that law enforcement has begun to crack down, the experience is more dangerous. “The whole idea of this dark net marketplace, where people are able to review drugs that they’re buying from vendors and get up on a forum and say, ‘Yes, this is real’ or ‘No, this actually hurt me’—that’s been curtailed now that dark marketplaces have been taken offline,” says Radware’s Smith. There are still sites where drugs are reviewed, says Smith, but they have to be taken with a huge grain of salt.

Also, many dark web drug manufacturers will also purchase pill presses and dyes, and create dangerous look-a-like drugs. “One of the more recent scares that I could cite would be Red Devil Xanax,” he said. “These were sold as some super Xanax bars, when in reality, they were nothing but horrible drugs designed to hurt you.”

Smith says that some traditional drug cartels make use of the dark web networks for distribution, “it takes away the middleman and allows the cartels to send from their own warehouses and distribute it if they want to. You know how there are lots of local IPA microbreweries?” he says. “We also have a lot of local micro-laboratories. In every city, there’s probably at least one kid that’s gotten smart and knows how to order drugs on the dark net, and make a small amount of drugs to sell to his local network.”

Not everything is for sale on the dark web

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about drugs here for a reason. Smith calls narcotics “the physical cornerstone” of the dark web; “cybercrime—selling exploits and vulnerabilities, web application attacks—that’s the digital cornerstone. Basically, I’d say a majority of the dark net is actually just drugs and kids talking about little crimes on forums.”

Some of the scarier sounding stuff you hear about being for sale is often just rumors. Firearms, for instance: as Smith puts it, “it would be easier for a criminal to purchase a gun in real life versus the internet. Going to the dark net is adding an extra step that isn’t necessary in the process. When you’re dealing with real criminals, they’re going to know someone that’s selling a gun.”

Some sites seem perfectly innocent

Matt Wilson, chief information security advisor at BTB Security, says “there is a tame/lame side to the dark web that would probably surprise most people. You can exchange some cooking recipes—with video!—send email, or read a book. People use the dark web for these benign things for a variety of reasons: a sense of community, avoiding surveillance or tracking of internet habits, or just to do something in a different way.”

Of course, not everything is so innocent, or else it wouldn’t be found on the dark web. Still, “you can’t just fire up your Tor browser and request 10,000 credit card records, or passwords to your neighbor’s webcam,” says Mukul Kumar, CISO and VP ofCyber Practice at Cavirin. “Most of the verified ‘sensitive’ data is only available to those that have been vetted or invited to certain groups.”

“There are alot of countries that block social media,” Yapp said. Even journalists working to spread content in countries where information is restricted, like China, use the dark web. “I would not recommend anybody go and try it unless they know what they’re doing,” Yapp said.

About Us:

We have been mining social media since 2007 for our clients. By utilizing best in class software programs, we offer a service called eChatter.

eChatter works with you to obtain your objectives in a fast, accurate and reliable facet. By keeping our strengthened principals, yet evolving with this industry, we lead in social media monitoring. Since 2007, we have been dedicated to providing our customers with the most authentic data.

We offer: Social Media Investigations
www.e-chatter.net

How Social Media Helps Solve Crimes

We no longer live in a world of modesty. It seems nothing is off limits these days…online confessions, incriminating selfies, and detailed accounts of crimes. Experts now explain how social media has helped solve numerous investigations.

Take 22-year-old Melinda Vasilije, who was found stabbed to death in her Kitchener, Ontario apartment. Soon after, a Reddit post titled “Wanted for Kitchener murder – my side” surfaced. It was allegedly authored by Ager Hasan, 24, Vasilije’s former boyfriend.

In what allegedly appeared to be a detailed confession, Vasilije explained in detail what happened that night. He also posted photos of the former couple together and screenshots of text messages between them. Hasan went on the run in the United States while a warrant was out for his arrested and has been charged with second-degree murder. Preliminary court proceedings are currently underway.

While most social media posts to be self-serving, Hasan’s posts while on the run seemed reactionary rather than motivated by an audience. However, there have been a number of recent cases where it’s obvious the suspects wanted an audience.

For instance, the 24 year old “selfie killer” Amanda Taylor, who was convicted of murdering her father-in-law, 59-year-old Charlie Taylor. Amanda took a selfie holding a bloody knife in front of the dead body of her father-in-law. She then posted it on her social media. While she was on the run she still made time to update Instagram with a photo of a gun in her lap and a note that seemed suicidal in tone. “Alright… It’s about that time. I’m going to go find my husband in Hell and finally be at peace.” Amanda is now serving life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder.

When asked why she would post about committing murder on social media, she told local media: “I guess I was proud of what I had done and like I got online and saw a couple different news postings and me and Sean, like, we were wanted,” she said. “They were looking for us, and I don’t know, I just felt the need… I was excited that I had finally [done] it.”

Another example of incriminating social media posts involves Cheyenne Rose Antoine, a 21-year-old woman in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison for killing her best friend. A key piece of evidence that was used to prove she had killed her friend, 18-year-old Brittney Gargol, was a selfie of the two women that showed Antoine wearing the same belt that was found next to Gargol’s body on a road near a landfill.

Lisa Watson, who was Antoine’s criminal defense lawyer, said she’s been seeing social media come up more often in criminal cases since she started practicing law in 2010. “It was all very foreign when social media kind of started exploding onto the scene,” Watson said. “Courts now, at least in my experience, are much more familiar with the various social media platforms.” Watson said Facebook in particular is one platform she’s seen progress in recent years.

“It seems there’s more of an acceptance of evidence coming forth from social media in criminal courtroom now,” Watson said. “Anything that gets written down or recorded, posted, anything like that, people just don’t realize the amount that it can be used and the ways it can be used in a courtroom. Be cautious about what you post,” Watson warns, “and be aware that it can be used perhaps to help you, but perhaps to form a criminal prosecution against you in the future.”

Law enforcement agencies are also turning to social media as a means of both solving crimes and connecting with the public. After 39 years in law enforcement, Florida’s Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey has created a unique use of social media to apprehend alleged perpetrators.

Since taking office in 2013, his department’s Facebook page has amassed more than 100,000 followers. Ivey’s “Wheel of Fugitive” broadcast on Facebook and YouTube, in which he asks the public for tips to locate individuals with current warrants (and yes, he spins a wheel with their mug shots), has led to a number of arrests over the past half-decade. Ivey says his team’s social-media output reaches between 300,000 and 700,000 people weekly—far more than they could hope to reach with more conventional methods.

“When I became Sheriff in 2013, one of my goals was to get vital crime information to the public before they became a victim, and not after,” says Ivey. “We found out very quickly that the overwhelming majority of people were using social media to interact.”

According to Ivey, the success rates in delivering and obtaining information this way, he says, are unprecedented. With the “Wheel of Fugitive” program, Ivey estimates, as much as 88 percent of perpetrators turn themselves in or are found using citizen tips.

The bottom line is that social media is fair game. Everything you post is public and could be used to help or hinder your case. So think twice before you post!

Lawyers Warn Employees about Social Media Use

“Watch what you say” is the advice being given to law students today due to firestorms on Twitter and haunting social media posts. Now “is the time to adjust your privacy settings,” Marta Ricardo, assistant dean and dean of career services at Columbia Law School told Bloomberg Law.

Ricardo noted that a student had a law firm offer “withdrawn because of what they said on Twitter.” Ricardo sits with law students and checks their social media presence, with their permission. Being cautious doesn’t mean that “you can’t have political views,” she said. Civil “discourse is fine,” and the tone used usually matters more than the content of what is said, Ricardo said.

“More and more, our identities as professionals and as people will be wrapped up in our social media presence,” Lauren Casazza of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York told Bloomberg Law by email. So it’s important to “think twice before posting and commenting,” said Casazza, who is co-chair of the recruiting committee in her firm’s New York office.

Kirkland’s guidance to its attorneys focuses on showing “integrity and common sense in everything they do, both within the legal world and on social media,” Casazza said. “An attorney’s internet and social media footprint is readily accessible by clients, courts and competitors anywhere in the world,” Casazza said. Kirkland’s law student associates are told to abide by the firm’s social media policy. They should consider if they would “want a post to show up on the cover of the newspaper, or be sent to their grandparents,” Casazza said. “We all have First Amendment rights, but we also must follow the rules and be mindful that how we express ourselves online will be with us forever.”

The Cold, Hard Truth

Law firms are facing new ethical and legal challenges involving cybersecurity and oversharing in their employees’ use of social media. To protect themselves and their clients, firms are instituting policies to ensure client confidentiality and proper representation by employees, even in their personal use of the platforms. “The most common concern is making sure that personal social media accounts remain personal, and don’t appear to bear the imprimatur of the firm,” Jacob Rooksby, who is to become dean of Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Wash., on June 1, told Bloomberg Tax. “Everyone must realize that postings to ‘public’ accounts can reflect on the firm and its clients, even when profile pages indicate ‘all views are my own; retweets do not imply endorsement.’”

Social media offers opportunities to access a global audience, Kelly Phillips Erb, a tax attorney and senior editor at Forbes Media LLC, said. Many states have specific ethical rules for lawyers using social media that employees may not be aware of. It is important that a firm set expectations to protect its brand and its clients’ privacy. “There are mounting instances of attorney and judge ethical violations involving social media use,” Rooksby said. “Some state bar groups have promulgated advisory ‘rules’ and best practices that should be heeded. A single lapse in judgment can have devastating consequences.

Confidentiality

While social media might be great for sharing some things, any sharing of confidential information poses a very real threat to law firms. “The problem is that both attorneys and non-attorneys alike are so accustomed to sharing information via social media, from the inane (what I had for lunch today) to the personal (‘my divorce finally came through today!’) to matters relating to firm business (‘settled big case today’),” said Michael E. McCabe Jr., the founder of McCabe Law LLC in Potomac, Md.

“The ethical duties of client confidentiality and client loyalty are so fundamental to the attorney-client relationship, and yet with the ease of access and sharing of information via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or on firm-sponsored sites such as blogs and websites, it is important for attorneys to stop and think before they post.” Mayer Brown LLP has implemented social media policies to address such concerns. Marcia Goodman, a partner at the firm’s Chicago office, said employees should always be mindful “not to post or view material that infringes the intellectual property rights of a third party.”

“We want to ensure our clients know that we are not just mindful of their confidences, but that we ensure that we have reasonable protections in place to avoid violating their secrets,” McCabe said. “We have an ethical duty of technical competency, and that can be interpreted to include using modern hardware and software solutions to protect the firm’s valuable secrets.”

First Amendment Issue

Many employees, particularly non-attorneys within a firm, may argue that social media policies would infringe on their First Amendment rights, but tax professionals say the First Amendment may not apply in some cases. “Private law firms are free to enact policies that may limit the First Amendment rights of their employees, attorney and non-attorney alike,” Rooksby said.

This is because “attorneys hold privileged positions in society,” and law firms’ obligations are to the clients, Rooksby said, adding that the more “private” an account’s setting is, the fewer concerns a law firm should have about content. “Some people may believe they have a First Amendment right to post anything they want. Maybe so when it comes to the government control of speech, but law firms are private employers, and nearly all attorneys and non-attorneys are at will,” McCabe said, referring to voluntary employment subject to termination with or without cause or notice. “So it is very important that non-lawyers are covered under any social media policy,” he said.

Goodman said that employees should make disclaimers indicating that they aren’t speaking for their firm, client, or other entity. She also advises employees “not to make statements that could be construed as legal advice or as creating an attorney-client relationship on social media.”

Best Practices

Intellectual property attorneys agree that law firms should have a written policy to govern their employees’ use of social media. Scott L. Malouf, a social media lawyer in Rochester, N.Y., who helps other attorneys use social media evidence in discovery and litigation and helps organizations use social media to meet business and compliance goals, offered the following suggestions:

First, don’t view the policy as set it and forget it. Social media is too dynamic-platform services, user culture, and relevant legal requirements change quickly. A policy, ideally, should evolve in response.

Second, don’t aim for perfection. Addressing “every” social media scenario can become an overwhelming task because platforms are just too varied. A better approach may be to create a shorter, user-friendly policy and support it with solid training and concrete examples.

Third, remember the positive aspects of social media. Risk reduction, legal and ethical compliance, and creating clear expectations often drive social media policies – yet a policy shouldn’t undermine the benefits of social media.

What is Meta Data and How is it Used?

Every day we read tweets, Facebook posts and browse Instagram stories. All we see is what’s on the surface…but if we dig deeper we could find an enormous amount of hidden data. This data is called meta data.

To put it simply, metadata means “data about data”. Metadata is used to summarize basic information about data which can make tracking and working with specific data easier. The term was first used to describe the physical card catalogs in libraries before transitioning to being a term to describe digital data. Another common use of metadata is around digital photographs, where the metadata can describe the size, resolution, creation date, camera used, and much more for every image.

In the context of social media analytics, metadata is all of the data about a particular social media post. While some of that data can be seen in the social feed where that post appears, a lot of metadata is hidden behind the scenes.

Some examples include:

Means of creation of the data
Purpose of the data
Time and date of creation
Creator or author of the data
Location where the data was created
File size
Data quality
Source of the data
Process used to create the data

How is Metadata useful?

Metadata reveals new dimensions to filter through and explore when analyzing social media data, such as the time frame, audience, sentiment or location of a social media conversation. More robust metadata makes even deeper analysis possible and allows brands to understand an audience, track brand health, uncover customer trends and more.

More than Meets the Eye

What you see in a social media post is the fancy cover. But just what does a tweet look like?

This is the metadata from one Tweet. As you can see, it contains a full set of data on the user who posted the Tweet, including user ID and screen name, the date the account was created, the user’s location, and information about geotagging and privacy features set up on the account. That information is sent out with every tweet!

Since 2010, even more metadata has been added to Tweets. Now you can see whether it was a retweet, a direct message, a reply message, and a complete list of all hashtags the Tweet included. The metadata will also include information about the application used to send the post i.e. web or iPhone.

Another critical piece of information contained in the metadata is information on any edits or updates to a post. Facebook’s metadata will tell you both when a post was created and when it was revised/updated.

Social media evidence contains a wealth of information beyond the text contained in a post. With all of this detailed data from one individual social post, you can imagine the massive amount of data contained in over one trillion social media posts! Analyzing that massive data set can help uncover powerful insights about brands, products, consumers, or any other topic.

About Us:

We have been mining social media since 2007 for our clients. By utilizing best in class software programs, we offer a service called eChatter.

eChatter works with you to obtain your objectives in a fast, accurate and reliable facet. By keeping our strengthened principals, yet evolving with this industry, we lead in social media monitoring. Since 2007, we have been dedicated to providing our customers with the most authentic data.

We offer:

· Deep Web Scans

· Jury Vetting

· Jury Monitoring

· Quick Scan

www.e-chatter.net

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