U.K. Court Serves Papers on Facebook, Spurs Privacy Concerns

British judge Justice Teare allowed lawyers to serve papers via Facebook in a commercial case that faced difficulties locating one of the defendants, setting a precedent in the U.K. for using the social media site in an official legal capacity.

"It's a fairly natural progression", said Jenni Jenkins, lawyer at Memery Crystal, the firm representing one of the parties in the case, to The Telegraph. "A High Court judges has already ruled that an injunction can be served via Twitter, so it's a hop, skip and a jump away from that to allow claims to be served via Facebook".

Courts around the world are embracing social networking sites to facilitate the legal process. The court's decision to use Facebook follows similar practices in Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. county court system.

The move builds on the role Facebook plays as it transforms from a previously closed-off social network into a public forum. What once served as a private playground for college kids is turning into a database of information, available to governments and employers.

The Commonwealth legal systems' embrace of Facebook as a valid, reliable virtual address points to the social media enclave's transformation into a quasi-official public identifier. Persons of interest hide home addresses and phone numbers from authorities, but rarely delete their Facebook pages, which link to e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and personal information.

As the network becomes increasingly open to government and legal institutions, Facebook already faces criticism about its privacy policies on several fronts, especially when the company adjusts privacy terms. For example, users criticized the recently introduced Timeline format for its ability to make old, embarrassing posts easily accessible. Even customized privacy settings come under fire for being too difficult to navigate, and younger users are flocking to Twitter in response to Facebook's perceived privacy failings.

Facebook owns the information users post, and though it vows to keep data confidential and out of the hands of advertisers or hackers, the social media site does not block police and government officials from using Facebook information to track down persons of interest.

The U.S. has yet to allow law firms to issue legal papers on Facebook, but authorities are turning to the site for more than messaging or whimsical cat videos. Search warrants to plumb suspects' accounts for detailed personal information are on the rise. In addition, debt collectors and divorce attorneys often attempt to collect incriminating private data from Facebook.

Governments and related institutions are eager to reach citizens' Facebook information. As lawyers, debt collectors and other parties seek to gain access to people via the site, the company risks alienating its user base and investors if its privacy missteps gain media attention, which is especially risky in light of Facebook's looming IPO. Showing little fear of a user exodus, however, the social media network lets agencies use the site for official purposes, signaling no turning back for a massive social network as it becomes an increasingly public part of society.