Information contained in social media profiles like Facebook and LinkedIn can be valuable sources of background, investigative, and evidentiary information for attorneys.

Details of these changes can be found in the Addendum page for The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet.

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Twitter appears to have disabled its pinpoint geographical search capability, and severely limited its other geographic search capablities. Some less precise geographic search capabilities do still remain.

Until recently, it was possible to enter the search instruction geocode (along with GPS coordinates for a specific location) into the search box at Twitter to retrieve tweets from that location or within a specified radius around that location. For example, geocode:35.0697244,-106.631294,2mi would retrieve tweets within a 2 mile radius of those GPS coordinates (Isotopes Park in Albuqueruque, NM). This search no longer reliably retrieves those results.

Until recently, it was also possible to enter a point of interest into the Near this place box on Twitter's Advanced Search page to retrieve tweets near (a limited list) of well-known geographic points of interest (e.g., Yankee Stadium, Golden Gate Bridge).
 

For most users, Twitter has converted the Near this place search to only auto-recognizing your current location (as detected using your Internet connection) after you click the Add Location button that now appears to the right of the Near this place label. (We say "most users" because the Near this place box does still appear in some Web browsers.) Clicking this button will retrieve tweets within a 15 mile radius of your detected location.

By default, there is no way to set any location other than the one automatically detected when you click this button. Luckily however, there is a way to override this default. To override the default, you can enter a location into Twitter's main search box this way:

near:"Culver City, CA" within:2mi

This search will retrieve results within a 2 mile radius of a central point within the city you define in your search. There does not appear to be a way to search more specifically than the city level.

We had no response to an email request to Twitter for comment on the status of its geographic searches.

The post Twitter Kills Search Features Useful for Background and Investigative Research appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

In our in-person CLE seminars and online webinars, we have long taught legal professionals how they could conduct these email and phone number searches themselves to locate background and investigative research information on subjects using the search box at the top of Facebook pages (when you are logged into your own account). These searches were particularly useful in locating Facebook profiles where users had adopted a pseudonym for their profile (or had a common name leading to too many results) but had used a known email address or phone number to open the Facebook account. As of now, those searches no longer retrieve results.

Now, using the search box to search for the email address that an individual has associated with their Facebook account no longer retrieves any “People” results (see illustration below). Facebook will not even retrieve profile results for individuals you are “Friends” with on Facebook.

Instead of searching through the member database for the email address you’ve entered, Facebook now treats these searches as full-text searches. The site (attempts to) locate the email address you’ve searched for as text in publicly available posts. In the example in the illustration (below), the email address search results seen are displayed only because Carole included her email address as part of the text of the posts that were returned.

The same is true for phone number searches.

In an announcement on its site, Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer explained, how "malicious actors" had "abused these features to scrape public information" from Facebook profiles.

"Given the scale and sophistication of the activity we've seen, we believe most people on Facebook could have had their public profile scraped in this way. So we have now disabled this feature. We're also making changes to account recovery to reduce the risk of scraping as well," he added in the post.

The post went on to detail how the company has limited access to various types of information, including:

• Search and Account Recovery
• Facebook Login
• Events API (Application Program Interface)
• Groups API
• Pages API
• Instagram Platform API
• Call and Text History
• Data Providers and Partner Categories
• App Controls

These changes are designed to limit the amount and type of information third-parties can share into and retrieve from Facebook pages.

Despite discontinuing these searches and methods of accessing profile information, the non-Facebook-affiliated search tool at SearchIsBack.com does still retrieve worthwhile relational search results (utilizing Facebook’s now also-discontinued Graph Search API). It’s unclear how long it will continue to function, however.

The post Facebook Kills Search Features Useful for Background and Investigative Research appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

The new South Carolina State Employee Code of Conduct was recommended to Governor Nikki Haley by the State Employee Code of Conduct  she created for this purpose through South Carolina Executive Order 2014-23.The code does not include penalties for violations.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has nearly 170,000 "Likes" for her Facebook page.

The post South Carolina Bans Social Media for State Employees appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

By default, all photos posted to Instagram are public. Neither the mobile app nor the Web site offer a way to search by user name or keyword, but a number of third-party sites have sprung up to make Instagram content searchable.

Currently, our favorite is GramFeed because it offers the widest array of search options, including:

• Keyword
• User name
• Location (generally; e.g., New York, Chicago)
• Places (more specific location; e.g., La Fonda in Santa Fe, NM)

Other third-parties that offer ways to search Instagram include Webstagram and Findgram, both of which allow you to search by user name or keyword; and WorldCam which allows you to search with a keyword and limit your results to a geographic location (e.g., John Deere C & F Building and Moline, IL).

Users can also make their accounts private, so that only people who follow them on Instagram will be able to see their photos. If they have made their profiles private, none of these third-party sites will be able to search Instagram.

The post Searching for Images on Instagram appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

If that Friend has a more relaxed privacy setting for their Friends list then the Mutual Friends you share will be displayed. CyberInt's Shay Priel describes it this way:

The vulnerability exists in the “Mutual Friend” section, in the following URL:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.name(Hidden Friends Profile)/friends?and=second.profile(Public Friends Profile)

Here is Facebook explanation about the Mutual Friends feature:

"Mutual friends are the people who are Facebook friends with both you and the person whose Timeline you're viewing. For instance, if you're friends with Chris, and Mark is friends with Chris, then Chris will be shown as a mutual friend when you're viewing Mark's Timeline".

So basically, if two users have mutual friends, these friends will be shown on Mutual Friends, even if one of them marked his\her Friend List as private (for no one else to see).

The ability to compare the Friends lists of two Facebook users and see the overlappping Mutual Friends could be a useful investigative research tool. You would need to know the Facebook usernames for each of the people about whom you are searching for information.

Priel has also created the Facebook Hidden Friends Crawler (for Linux) as "proof of concept." Non-linux users would have to manually construct the URL comparing the two users' Mutual Friends list using the URL schema above. 

Note, that if you're looking to lock down access to your own Friends list, this privacy setting IS NOT found behind the "lock and drop-down arrow" in the upper right-hand corner of your Facebook profile. To access this privacy setting you must visit your Friends page (https://www.facebook.com/UserName/friends_all) and click the pencil icon on the right-hand side, just above your Friends list.

The post How Private is your Facebook Friends List? “Feature” Could be Useful for Investigative Research appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Now, you can retrieve older tweets more easily, within a range you define, using the newly added "Dates" limiter on Twitter's Advanced Search page.

Simply add a beginning and ending date to the "Dates" limiter to define your date range.

You can also "mix and match" the search criteria on the Advanced Search page to create more targeted searches. For example, you could search for tweets "From these accounts" (searching by username), with "Any of these [key]words," and limit the date range during which the tweets were posted.

The post Twitter Makes Searches Better | Adds Date Limiter appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

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The following is a list of the currently available legal ethics opinions and guidelines:

• The New York State Bar Social Media Ethics Guidelines of the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section (2019)
• The Professional Ethics Committee of the State Bar of Texas - Opinion 671 (March 2018)
• DC Bar Association Ethics Opinion 371 (November 2016)
• The Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee Formal Opinion 127 (September 2015)
• The State Bar of California Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct Proposed Formal Opinion Interim No. 11-0004 is now The State Bar of California Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct Formal Opinion No. 2015-193
• Florida Bar Proposed Advisory Opinion 14-1 [Affirmed as modified by the Professional Ethics Committee on June 25, 2015.]
• Pennsylvania Bar Association Formal Opinion 2014-300
• Philadelphia Bar Association Professional Guidance Committee Opinion 2014-5 (July 2014)
• Massachusetts Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics Opinion 2014-5 (May 2014)
• American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility Formal Opinion 466
• State Bar of California Proposed Formal Opinion Interim No. 11-0004
• New York County Lawyer's Association Formal Ethics Opinion 745
• Oregon State Bar Association Formal Opinion 2013-189
• New Hampshire Bar Association Ethics Committee Advisory Opinion #2012-13/05
• Kentucky Bar Association Ethics Opinion KBA E-434
• New York City Bar Association Formal Ethics Opinion 2012-02
• New York County Lawyer's Association Formal Ethics Opinion 743
• San Diego County Bar Association Ethics Opinion 2011-2
• New York City Bar Association Formal Ethics Opinion 2010-02
• New York State Bar Ethics Opinion #843
• Missouri Bar Association Informal Opinion 2009-0003
• Philadelphia Bar Association Ethics Opinion 2009-02
• Oregon State Bar Association Formal Opinion 2005-164

For a more detailed discussion of Philadelphia Bar Association Ethics Opinion 2009-02 see our article, "Social Networking Sites are Valuable Tools For Lawyers: But Beware the Ethical Pitfalls."

For a comparison of New York State Bar Association Formal Ethics Opinion 2010-02 and Philadelphia Bar Association Ethics Opinion 2009-02, see our article, "New York State and Philadelphia Bar Association Legal Ethics Opinions Address Lawyers' Use of Social Media Sites for Investigative and Background Research."

Also see our collection of cases related to attorneys' use of social media for investigative and background research  in various court jurisdictions.

The post Legal Ethics Opinions Related to Attorneys’ Use of Social Media Profiles for Investigative and Background Research appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

The American Bar Association is closing down its Legally Minded social networking site. In an e-mail today, the American Bar Association informed Legally Minded users, "Legally Minded is shutting down. Retrieve your data now." The e-mail advises users that the ABA will "cease operation of LegallyMinded at 3pm Central Time on Thursday, April 7, 2011." After that date user information will no longer be available for retrieval.

The e-mail also advises that the Legally Minded Job Board will also be shut down on the same date.

The ABA offered the following log-in instructions to users wishing to retrieve their data prior to the deadline

Log-in Instructions Log in to LegallyMinded before 3pm Central Time, Thursday, April 7:

1) Visit: http://be.legallyminded.com/customer_password.aspx

2) Enter the email address this message was sent to.

3) Your password will be sent to you at the email address entered.

4) Visit: http://be.legallyminded.com/login.aspx to log in with your email address and the password sent to you.

Log in to the LegallyMinded job board before 3pm Central Time, Thursday, April 7: http://jobs.legallyminded.com/login/

The post American Bar Association Shuts Down Legally Minded Professional Networking Site appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Todd Jackson, Product Manager for Google Buzz explained that the new service, to be "built directly into Gmail," will easily allow you to locate people you might be interested in by "auto-following" the Gmail contacts who you e-mail and chat with most often. He also described how Google Buzz will be able to aggregate updates those people generate in other social media services whether or not you have have an account there.

When you create an update, you have the option of making it "public" (available to all your followers, posted to your Google Profile, and available in Google Web search) or "private" (sent to select contacts in your Gmail Contact list). Any Gmail user who comes across a public update on your public Profile can comment on that update, whether they're following you or not. The comments are listed below your original update similar to Facebook status updates. At the outset, the default for updates is public. However, if you send a private update, subsequent updates will be private until you change this setting.

Google Buzz includes promises close integration with other Google services like Picasa and Blogger and with non-Google sites like Flickr and Twitter. This includes the ability to "automatically pull headlines and photos from links that you post," similar to Link updates in Facebook. The integration with Twitter entails pulling in all of your public Tweets as Google Buzz updates.

While the service will roll-out to Gmail users over the next few days, Vic Gundotra, Google's VP of Engineering, discussed the mobile version which is available immediately for Nokia, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Android phones. A Web-based app is also available to iPhone and Android phone users - by pointing their Web browsers to http://buzz.google.com. Updates can be created in the mobile version either by typing or speaking (using the Google Voice Shortcut).

With the announcement of Google Buzz, comes a new Buzz layer to Google Maps. The mobile version of Google Buzz incorporates the phones' GPS capabilities to add geographic information (geo-location) to updates sent from the app. The mobile version of Google Buzz allows you to view updates from people you're following or to see location-based updates sent "nearby" your current location displayed on Google Maps as "talk bubble" icons (similar to those in comic strips). They're readable by clicking on the icon.

One limitation we noted in our (previously) limited access to the mobile edition, was the inability to opt out of receiving subsequent comments to a Buzz update we had commented on previously. (Once we commented on a Buzz update, we received threaded updates in our Gmail box each time someone else commented on that update.) This issue is resolved in the Gmail-based version of Google Buzz by selecting Mute this conversation from the drop-down menu next to the Comment link on the right-hand side of the update.

Similarly, the browser-based version of Google Buzz includes another of the features we commented on wanting in the mobile version.  In the web-based version, when you set an update to private, the options to whom you do share the update include the groups you'd previously established in Gmail, any individual Gmail contact or follower to whom to send an update (ala Twitter's Direct Message) or multiple Gmail contacts or followers (ala CCs on an e-mail). (After selecting Private from the drop-down menu, select one of your existing Gmail groups or click Create a new group to select individual or multiple contacs to whom you want to send this particular update. Your group will also be saved for the future.)

In addition to the consumer versions of Google Buzz, Google promises a business version in the near future.

CBS News/C|net technology correspondent Larry Magid has raised a number of interesting privacy concerns. Digg and WeFollow founder Kevin Rose and RSS creator Dave Winer pose different sets of concerns in their own blog posts.

In addition to the live announcement event, Google has posted an announcement to its blog and a demo/descriptive video at on YouTube.

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