In Rhone v. Schneider National Carriers, Inc., 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53346, a national court ordered the applicant to generate the “Download Your Info” file from her social media account on Facebook (Gates, 2016). The “Download Your Info” details contain the entire information of the user’s profile in one file.
Rhone was a private injury case occurred because of an accident with a motor vehicle. The defendant, in this case, demanded a copy of all the posts which applicant made on social media websites after the accident. The applicant answered that she had not a single document file, but the defendant revealed Facebook post of the applicant where she was shown dancing in the club after the accident. The defendant then filed a case to force the applicant to get more information about that post from “Download Your Info” feature from the date of the accident. However, the applicant was not willing to present the reports from her social media accounts. In response, the court permitted the defendant’s proposal to oblige generation of the “Download Your Info” details. The Rhone judgment is in a settlement with cases countrywide which embrace that social media can work as appropriate evidence in court cases.
In the modern world, a lot of people uses online social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Social media websites have turn out to be a universal technique of staying in touch with family and friends, and it can work as evidence in nationalized courts. According to, computer forensics is the practice of accumulating, exploring and reporting on the basis digital data obtained from a social media website in a way that is lawfully permissible (Casey, 2011). The obtained data from social media sites can be used in the exposure and anticipation of crime and in any other disagreement where proof is stored in a digital form.
The assembling of evidence from a social networking site is a consistent and a well- mannered procedure to uphold its probative assessment in an authorized proceeding. Social networking sites can hold proofs in the form of a piece of mail, Internet record, credentials, or posts on Facebook and Instagram. It is not just the collection of e-mail, credentials and other files that can be of interest to inspectors, in fact, the metadata which is linked with the obtained document will also help in finding out the exact evidence related to the cases. A computer forensic inspection can disclose the exact date of the post which was created, and the date when it was edited, which will help the judge in identifying that the applicant is deceitful or the defendant. Since social media has become a prominent part of everyone’s life, so people usually prefer to post about their daily life routine’s details and photos on such websites. Computer Forensic inspection can also help in locating the missing persons by discovering their last login location in their personal social media account.
It is noticeably believable that the decision of the court was consistent and reliable. Rhone exemplifies the possible threats of deteriorating to act entirely in response to social media discovery requests. The court’s decision was right that social media could positively be a basis of evidence regarding a person’s physical condition, physical movement, and psychological state. Given the fact that defender asked the applicant to present a report of her Facebook posts, and the applicant failed to fulfill the demand, so under such circumstances, the court took a right decision by favoring the defender.
References
Casey, E. (2011). Digital Evidence and Computer Crime,. Chicago: Academic Press.
Gates, K. &. (2016, April 21). Court orders production of “download your info” report from facebook. Retrieved from http://www.ediscoverylaw.com/
