Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Kentucky

I have a Facebook account. I added, to my friends list, the apartment manager where I live and her best friend who happens to be my next door neighbor. After feeling that the apartment manager was rude to my ex-husband and to my oldest son, I removed and blocked her from my friends list but left my neighbor on who I felt had been going back and forth to the manager with things about me. The other day I put on my status that 'This place is a dump and I hate it here'. I did not say '(Name of apartment) is a dump and I hate it here (name of apartment)'. On my status is an option to make a status viewable to certain people or to block certain people from viewing. As childish as this was, I made it viewable to my neighbor only just to see if she was saying things to the manager. A day later I received a letter in the mail from the Apartment complex stating that I could move, that they were aware that I was making comments online about them and that I was receiving inadequate housing. When I went to the manager she showed me a printoff of my personal profile page, with the one status highlighted, paperclipped to my file. When I told her that there wasn't any way for her to have been able to see that (my entire profile is private and only viewable to friends), she said she had seen it on hers, which was not the truth. I hope this doesn't sound silly but I do feel like I have been violated, especially with a copy of my privately marked page there for whoever to see, and I would like to know if there is anything that I can do about this? I did ask her to throw it away as I felt that was childish and she refused. I have looked on TOS for Facebook and I am not really understanding exactly their stance on this and cannot find a way to personally ask anyone affiliated with Facebook.

Thank you for your time.

Lori C.


Asked on 1/26/11, 1:11 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Andrea Welker Welker Law Office

Nothing on the internet is private. You do not have a right to privacy on anything you post on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. In fact, generally Facebook's terms of service state they can do whatever they feel like with your personal information and content at any time.

Just as if you sent a private correspondence to your friend through the mail and she gave a copy of it to the apartment manager, there is nothing you can do about it. That's why you should be careful what you put into print, whether on the internet or otherwise. Nothing is truly private.

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Answered on 2/17/11, 6:44 pm


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