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Eh, accessing someone else's facebook to post mischievous posts seems to be a near universal prank amongst US teenagers, and I've never heard of the Feds taking

Eh, accessing someone else's facebook to post mischievous posts seems to be a near universal prank amongst US teenagers, and I've never heard of the Feds taking an interest. Seems like its one of those things that's technically illegal, but is unlikely to draw any actual legal action unless done in the service of some more serious offense. (plus, I'm pretty sure fraud requires an intent to deceive. Given that the woman told a journalist what she was up to, it seems it would be hard to prove that she was trying to make people think she was actually the owner of the facebook account.)

sp332 9y ago
The fraud in this case would be to Facebook, because she is pretending to be the other user. I'd be surprised in this case if Facebook took legal action against her, but they might ban her from the platform.
- snowwrestler 9y ago
  Ok but that's pretty far from a federal offense.
  - sp332 9y ago
    If they can prove that she caused damage or obtained anything of value, it is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act#Criminal_offenses_under_the_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act#C...
- pcl 9y ago
  Is there any case law on this? In particular, I wonder what establishes ownership of an account. For example, I know people who share email accounts. How does the law distinguish the two cases? If Alice were to go after Bob for logging in with credentials to an account she created, things seem pretty simple. But it seems difficult for Facebook to determine whether Alice and Bob are ok with a shared account or not. And even more so for the government to determine if it's ok for Bob to use those credentials.
  - c22 9y ago
    Facebook doesn't have to determine whether Bob and Alice are okay sharing an account because doing so is already expressly prohibited by their terms of service[0]: > "You will not share your password (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account." [0]: https://www.facebook.com/terms.php https://www.facebook.com/terms.php
    - pcl 9y ago
      Well, sure, but fraud is a criminal charge, not a ToS violation.

sp332 9y ago

The fraud in this case would be to Facebook, because she is pretending to be the other user. I'd be surprised in this case if Facebook took legal action against her, but they might ban her from the platform.

snowwrestler 9y ago
Ok but that's pretty far from a federal offense.
- sp332 9y ago
  If they can prove that she caused damage or obtained anything of value, it is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act#Criminal_offenses_under_the_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act#C...
pcl 9y ago
Is there any case law on this? In particular, I wonder what establishes ownership of an account. For example, I know people who share email accounts. How does the law distinguish the two cases? If Alice were to go after Bob for logging in with credentials to an account she created, things seem pretty simple. But it seems difficult for Facebook to determine whether Alice and Bob are ok with a shared account or not. And even more so for the government to determine if it's ok for Bob to use those credentials.
- c22 9y ago
  Facebook doesn't have to determine whether Bob and Alice are okay sharing an account because doing so is already expressly prohibited by their terms of service[0]: > "You will not share your password (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account." [0]: https://www.facebook.com/terms.php https://www.facebook.com/terms.php
  - pcl 9y ago
    Well, sure, but fraud is a criminal charge, not a ToS violation.