Attorney discusses safety, legal implications of social media
Due to roll out in just days, a new Facebook feature promising to map a user’s every move — past, present and future — gives even more reason to be cautious with social media, warns an attorney who recently visited students at a local campus.
Cory S. Winter, a member of the Higher Education Practice Group of Saul Ewing LLP, presented a workshop at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, explaining the legal implications and best practices in a growing and more complicated world of social media use.
With more than 750 million active users, Winter said Facebook is a leader in the social networking generation, and, as the new changes are implemented, legal and safety ramifications are heightened as users are unaware of how their Internet usage is tracked and their information is dispersed.
Facebook will unveil Timeline, which takes user control out of the hands of users and automates what is shared on a profile, including photos, past status updates, location “check-ins” and more. Critics of the new mechanism say Timeline opens the door for more security concerns as users are asked to supply more in-depth information and web-surfing patterns are monitored.
“Even if you think you are in a private setting — think again,” said Winter, who noted that oftentimes friends can save photos from a friend’s site and repost to their profile, putting them in public view. He also said that many times posts or photos that are marked private can actually show up in a Google search. “There’s really no privacy on social media sites.”
Winter said sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogging, virtual gaming worlds and others can serve as outlets to bullying, stalking and harassment, and ever-changing privacy and sharing controls could lead to harm, public humiliation or legal issues.
“There are just too many people doing too many dumb things with social media,” he said.
Winter said although Pennsylvania has laws that will create criminal liability for someone who uses a computer in educational settings to engage in cyberstalking, cyberharassment or cyberbullying, the law hasn’t been able to keep up with the speeding advances in social media technology.
He suggested that institutions develop an “acceptable use” policy that stresses proper conduct and ensures liable slander, hate speech and threats of violence are not protected by the Freedom of Speech amendment. He also warned against school officials connecting with students on social media sites.
“Ask yourself if it’s a good idea. At the end of the day, there are just more negative things that come out of that,” he said. “This isn’t an issue that is going away anytime soon, so talk about it as a school. Get as much education on it as possible and then review and strengthen policies.”