What Facebook Sends The Cops When Your Account Is Subpoenaed

What Facebook Sends The Cops When Your Account Is Subpoenaed


As part of its investigation into the Philip Markoff case — aka the Craigslist Killer — the Boston Police Department subpoenaed his Facebook account. And now that a large collection of files related to the case have been released by the Boston Police Department, we’re finally getting a look at what exactly the social media juggernaut shares with investigators.

The Boston Phoenix, one of the city’s newspapers, ran a cover story about the case this week — Hunting the Craigslist Killer: An Untold Detective Story from the Digital Frontier. And in conjunction with the piece the paper has also published a collection of documents related to the case on its site — including the information provided by Facebook.

The specific names and IDs in the docs have been redacted by the paper, but Facebook provides actual printed copies of wall posts, uploaded photos, photos a suspect is tagged in, private messages, extensive login and IP data and a comprehensive list of their friends. Basically everything. So if you’re curious as to what might eventually become public knowledge were you to commit a terrible crime, or even how law enforcement goes about subpoenaing Facebook, you can peruse a small sampling of the documents over on The Boston Phoenix’s blog. [The Boston Phoenix]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.