Like Sheep To The Slaughter - Do You Use Twitter And Facebook At Starbucks?

Is it legal to use Firesheep at Starbucks? - Computerworld. There is an ongoing dispute about whether the use of the new FireSheep Firefox add-on that enables the user to spy on and obtain Facebook and Twitter information from other users on a network is illegal or not. I think that this is clearly a violation of Florida's statute, which prohibits any grabbing of another's internet traffic, public network or not. Does the general public have a reasonable expectation of privacy on a public, open network? Maybe not, but they certainly have a reasonable expectation that their private communications data will not be stolen from them without their prior consent. Or, do they? Let's go, fellow lawyer technocats. Let's get a discussion going here.

Comments

[Joshuacraiglee]

I think this would be a perfect case for some empirical evidence. I really believe that most people have no idea this add-on exists, and that they believe that their data is safe without some fairly complex hacking being done. If that is the case, then the question is whether that is reasonable.

This brings up a very interesting question - if the technology makes this "spying" incredibly easy, should the technology itself change whether the expectation is reasonable?