Anything you tweet may be held against you

From You have the right to remain silent..and tweetless, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, August 20, 2009:

"Any thing you say, tweet, blog or post can and will be used against you" in the court of public discourse -- and that includes potential legal challenges.

"People tend to use Twitter and Facebook as if they were engaged in casual conversation and think they don't create legal risk; they are wrong," said William McGeveran, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who focuses on digital issues. "They don't realize their statements are public, archived and searchable."

The rest of the article is worth reading and sharing with staff and students.

So for those of you plotting your next bank job, assassination or extra-marital rendezvous, just use the phone like I do.

Comments

[Paul C]

Any digital footprint can come back and haunt you. It's there forever, can spread like wild fire, and is retrievable by any authority figure. It's a valuable lesson students need to learn.

[Buffy Hamilton]

Doug, thank you for sharing this resource---I will be including it in my unit on digital footprints with my students.