Facebook - a litigator's best friend

No matter how many times you adjust the latest privacy setting on Facebook there is, ultimately, no such thing as privacy in social media.

That doesn't mean there is someone constantly looking over the virtual shoulders of the world's 800 million active Facebook users, or tracking the multitudes on Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr or other websites. But it does mean that anyone with good, legal cause is increasingly likely to be able to sift through the personal and often recklessly frank exchanges that fly across the social media landscape.

The vulnerability of Facebook and similar sites to hackers and to the aggregation of commercially valuable data to build consumer profiles is well documented. Less so is the right to legitimate inquiry rapidly being established through legal precedents in the courts here and overseas, turning social media websites into potential treasure troves of evidence.

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