Social Media
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Bing has revamped the way it retrieves and displays search results to prominently include results related to your social network connections - primarily Facebook and Twitter. The new Bing results display interface is broken up into three columns. The widest column, on the left-hand side displays a traditional looking list of relevant "blue link" results. The middle of the three columns, the "...
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Most people are aware of (or at least heard of) the popular micro-blogging site Twitter. This social networking and updating site allows users to send brief messages (140 characters or less) via the service. By default, the messages are visible to anyone on the Internet - if they know where to look. Most Twitter users read tweets of other users they have chosen to "follow...
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More and more attorneys and judges are using social media. Some use it for its intended purpose of social networking (and, for the lesser intended purpose of marketing). Others take advantage of the information contained in these sites for an unintended purpose - investigative research. Legal pundits have argued (online and in print) about the ethical issues for attorneys utilizing this...
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Florida's not the first jurisdiction to clarify its Model Jury Instructions to include specific language barring jurors from discussing the cases they are hearing via social media like Twitter and Facebook. In May 2010, the New Jersey state courts amended their Model Civil Jury Instruction 1.11C to include "added reference to Use of the Internet and other electronic media." While Florida's...
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The Florida Supreme Court has updated its Standard Jury Instructions to specifically admonish jurors from discussing the cases they are hearing, "in person or through the telephone, writing, or electronic communication, such as a blog, twitter, e-mail, text message, or any other means." Interestingly, the Court has singled out "twitter" by name, but not other popular social media outlets like...
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The professional networking site LinkedIn has launched a new interface for displaying the updates sent out by users you follow and locating information posted by any user - regardless of whether you follow them or not. Dubbed "Signal," the new layout gives you the ability to quickly filter updates by various criteria, see the most popular content referred to in your connections' updates, and...
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One of the questions we're asked most often about conducting investigative research through social networking profiles is, "Do the people whose profiles I'm looking at know that I've looked at their profiles?" Most major social networking sites have refrained from giving the end-users specific information about who has visited their profiles. There have been a few exceptions to this rule like...
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A new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project finds that more than half of American adults who are online are conducting search engine searches to locate information posted about themselves on the Internet. While the concept of "ego-surfing" is nothing new, the study indicates an increase in awareness by adults of the volume of information that can...
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Social networking and ethics: what do these two concepts have in common? Plenty, if you're a lawyer. Using social networking can ensnare attorneys in ethical traps in two different ways — when accessing information in someone else's profile, or when an attorney's own profile information might be used against them. These are real world issues many practicing attorneys face every day. Let's...
