Information Gathering by Authorities
Another major area where privacy concerns arise is the use of social networks by authorities to gather information in the course of investigations.
Employers
Given the widespread use of social networks by college students who are searching for their first jobs, a significant privacy flash-point has been the use of social networks by prospective employers to gather information on potential recruits. This practice is reported to be widespread, and is highly controversial and unpopular with users of social networks, although it does not appear to be strictly illegal under any particular law.
Employers also use social networks to maintain their image after employees have left. One government employer demanded that a University of Indiana student remove information about an internship that she did with them after they found distasteful pictures on her Facebook profile.
University Authorities
University authorities have also used social networks to gather information. For example, campus police used Facebook to identify parties at George Washington University, so they could shut down parties likely to involve underage drinking. At North Carolina State, an RA wrote up fifteen students who had been seen consuming alcohol in pictures posted to a social network. Several students at Syracuse University were placed on disciplinary probation after joining a Facebook group critical of one of their instructors. (On the flip side, at the University of Louisville, a professor was dismissed in part due to student criticism via a Facebook group.)
Government Agents
As social networks begin to be used by a wider audience, more authorities have begun to use them as investigative tools. When Jessica Blinkerd was being tried for drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter, prosecutors successfully used photos from her MySpace page showing her partying with her friends shortly after the accident to argue that she had "no remorse" and push for a harsher sentence. Secret Service agents met with a University of Oklahoma freshman as a result of inflammatory comments he posted on Facebook about the current President of the United States. Even tax auditors have gotten into the game in some countries: Irish revenue investigators use Facebook, Xing, and LinkedIn to gather background information and even information about business activities before conducting audits.
Ethical Issues
What are the ethical issues raised by authorities using social networks to conduct investigations? An immediate issue is that users may not be aware that their profiles can be viewed by the public. When users and investigators have divergent beliefs about what information is being made publicly available, the situation is ripe for privacy violations. As mentioned in the Typical User Behavior section, user education about privacy settings is key here. As long as investigators are only viewing information that users are posting to the public, and the users understand that they are making the information available to anyone who wishes to view it, we feel there are no serious privacy concerns. Users should not be treated like children who are unable to make informed decisions about what information they want associated with their name.
On the other hand, when employers and other information-gatherers misrepresent themselves in the course of collecting information, their dishonesty constitutes a major ethical red flag. For example, when campus police register themselves as "undergraduates" in order to get information on parties, or job recruiters join college networks posing as students in order to browse applicant profiles, the deception involved is unethical and results in a serious violation of privacy: users post information restricted so that only fellow students can view it, but the deceptive investigator is able to access it as well by misrepresenting themselves. Such activities on the part of investigators are essentially fraud, and if nothing else constitute a serious violation of the terms of service of many networks.