Facebook
must hand over New York users' info to prosecutors, court rules
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[July 22, 2015]
By Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) - Facebook Inc cannot challenge
search warrants New York prosecutors used to get information from its
site on hundreds of users suspected of Social Security fraud, a state
appeals court said on Tuesday, in a decision likely making it harder for
New Yorkers to keep their digital lives private.
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The warrants, which applied to 381 users' photos, private messages
and other account information, could only be challenged by
individual defendants after prosecutors gathered evidence, the
Manhattan-based court unanimously ruled.
Facebook was backed in the case by a group of large Internet
companies including Google Inc and Microsoft Corp, which argued the
case could set a troubling precedent giving prosecutors access to
all kinds of digital information.
Internet companies are pushing back broadly against U.S.
intelligence and law enforcement agencies' demands for customer
data, in the wake of revelations by former National Security Agency
contractor Edward Snowden of wide-ranging online surveillance.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office served the warrants on
Facebook in 2013, seeking information on dozens of people later
indicted for Social Security fraud, including police officers and
firefighters who allegedly feigned illness in the wake of the Sept.
11, 2001 attacks.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jul/22/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png) The world's biggest online social network turned the records over to
prosecutors last year after a state judge threw out its claim that
the warrants violated users' Fourth Amendment rights, but it also
went ahead with an appeal.
The court on Tuesday said the only way to challenge warrants was for
defendants in criminal cases to move to suppress the evidence they
produced.
A Facebook spokesman said the company disagreed with the decision
and was considering an appeal.
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A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said prosecutors
had secured nearly $25 million from people who were targets in the
probe.
"In many cases, evidence on their Facebook accounts directly
contradicted the lies the defendants told to the Social Security
Administration," she said.
Prosecutors said Facebook pages showed public employees who claimed
to be disabled riding jet skis, playing golf and participating in
martial arts events.
Mariko Hirose, a lawyer with the New York Civil Liberties Union,
which also submitted a brief in support of Facebook, said the court
"side-stepped" an important question by ruling on Facebook's right
to challenge the warrants and not on their legality.
The case is: In re 381 search warrants directed to Facebook Inc and
dated July 23, 2013, Appellate Division, First Department, No.
30207-13.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Bill
Rigby)
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