A warning to anyone using social media, including Facebook.

A federal judge in New York ruled that law enforcement can set up fake profiles on social media for the purpose of looking into your friends, photos and whatever you chose to post online.

A criminal defendant was caught when undercover officers created a fake Instagram account, accepted a “friend request” from an undercover officer pretending to be someone else, and then used that access to peer into his private life (or what he chose to share with his friends).

The defendant argued that the police had no probable cause to search through his account. But the judge argued that since he accepted the request to become friends with the police officers, he enabled law enforcement to view photos and other information that he posted to his Instagram account.

 

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