Law: English tribunal says social postings are not private

An English tribunal has ruled that messages posted on Twitter (and therefore, by extension, on many other social networking sites) are not "private."

FIrst, let's draw a distinction between postings made for all to see (twitter, comments in bulletin boards / "fora" and so on) and those where there is a form of closed group (e.g. on a "friends" only "wall" at Facebook).

If a posting is made on a totally public site, it's no different, in principle, to sticking a notice on a lamp-post, at least so far as privacy is concerned.

That's what the PRess Complaints Commission, a quasi judicial body for the newspaper industry, decided yesterday in the High Court in London when a manager at the UK's Department of Transport compllained that a wrote a series of what can only be described as "ill advised" tweets which she wrote were republished in several newspapers.

The woman, Sarah Baskerville, claimed that she intended her tweets to be seen by a closed group known as "followers." In them she wrote offensive and politically charged criticisms of her employer and others.

The PCC's reasoning was that, even if the original messages were intended for her 700 odd "followers," they were in fact accessible to a wider audience. Moreover, once posted, she loses control over republication by her followers, called "retweeting." As she willingly puts the information into an inherently insecure position, she cannot then claim privacy in it.

Interestingly, the case appeared not to turn on copyright issues - such are outside the PCC's strict remit but might nevertheless have had some bearing. MIss Baskerville formed her claim solely on the basis that her privacy had been invaded.

PCC decisions have no standing in a Court and so the decision is not authortitive but it is certainly indicative of the way that a generally conservative body is is thinking.