Some Facebook Wall Posts Covered by the Stored Communications Act

Last month, a New Jersey Federal Court made strides in extending the privacy protection provided by the Stored Communications Act to Facebook wall posts.In Ehling v. Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp., Deborah Ehling, a registered nurse and paramedic employed by Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp., was disciplined by management over a comment she posted on her Facebook wall, which stated:

An 88 yr old sociopath white supremacist opened fire in the Wash D.C. Holocaust Museum this morning and killed an innocent guard (leaving children). Other guards opened fire. The 88 yr old was shot. He survived. I blame the DC paramedics. I want to say 2 things to the DC medics. 1. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? and 2. This was your opportunity to really make a difference! WTF!!!! And to the other guards....go to target practice.

Ehling had selected the privacy settings for her account to limit access to her Facebook wall to only her Facebook friends. During the time of the post at issue, Ehling had approximately 300 Facebook friends, which included many of Ehling’s co-workers, but Ehling had not added any hospital management. Hospital management had not “shoulder surfed” to obtain Ehling’s post, but rather the post was forwarded to management by Tim Ronco, one of Ehling’s Facebook friends and a co-worker.

Ehling filed the present suit claiming that management violated the Federal Stored Communications Act by improperly accessing her Facebook wall post.

While the court granted Monmouth-Ocean’s motion for summary judgment, as the Stored Communications Act’s authorized user exception applied (due to Ehling’s authorization of Ronco as a Facebook friend and Ronco’s voluntary and unsolicited forward of Ehling’s Facebook post to hospital management), the court held, “when users make their Facebook wall posts inaccessible to the general public, the wall posts are ‘configured to be private’ for purposes of the SCA [Stored Communications Act]. The Court notes that when it comes to privacy protection, the critical inquiry is whether Facebook users took steps to limit access to the information on their Facebook walls. Privacy protection provided by the SCA does not depend on the number of Facebook friends that a user has.”

Source: http://www.shearsocialmedia.com/2013/08/nj-federal-court-non-public-facebook.html https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7_eyMD-sepNRDRpTHNUVFVqTlk/edit

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