In the past, preserving and collecting user profiles on Facebook was a daunting task of screenshots, printing pages, and downloading potentially hundreds of individual files and photos. A Facebook profile can now be obtained for review using the simple procedure outlined at the end of this post.

Time will tell why Facebook decided to implement this feature. Facebook may have become weary of responding to an avalanche of subpoenas and preservation letters. Perhaps they just haven't found a way to charge for responding to legal requests as Google has. Regardless of the intent, this feature will greatly assist in gathering Facebook profiles in litigation.

What Facebook Information is Downloaded?

    * Profile page with all of the user's information.

    * The users's "Wall" with all status updates.

    * Replies/comments to all user contents, including status updates and photos.

    * A complete list of Facebook friends.

    * Notes.

    * Events to which the person RSVP'd.

    * A listing of all photos with the time of the upload

    * A complete list of the elusive Facebook messages (email) with the entire              conversation thread with timestamps.

With the great advantages this feature provides, I feel compelled to disclose issues that this beneficial feature will not address.

    * For starters, you will either need to have the Facebook username and password or rely on the other party to perform this procedure and provide the file to you. In other words, full cooperation or an appropriate subpoena or order will be needed.

    * If you are dealing with one of those pesky people that may decide to do a little "house cleaning" before the process is started, you will not have this deleted information (if you don't tell them, neither will I).

    * The information does not include the Holy Grail of instant messaging conversations, but these are often recoverable with a computer forensic analysis of the person's hard drive.

    * Lastly, this procedure will only gather information from the designated user's profile. It will not reveal posts to the walls of other Facebook users.

Since Christmas is fast approaching, I would like to ask Facebook to add the simple feature of mapping a Facebook user to the groups they have joined and the pages they have "liked" and any Facebook instant messages that are available.

How To Download The Facebook Information

1. On the upper right hand side of the Facebook page, choose Account-Account Settings.

2. You will be presented with the "My Account" page.

3. Toward the bottom of the page, you will see the "Download Your Information" option.

4. After choosing this option, Facebook will notify you that they will send a download link when the process is complete. Be patient, it could take a while.

5. Once the process is complete, you will receive an email from Facebook with the subject "Your Download Is Ready".

6. After clicking on the embedded link in the email, you will be presented with a password authentication screen.

7. Upon entering the correct password for the account, you will be provided with the "Download Now" Button.

8. Choose the appropriate place to save the file to your computer's hard drive.

9. Treat this information the same way that you would any other document of potential relevance by making multiple copies (preserving) and placing the copies with the appropriate information in a safe place.

10. Once you have backup copies properly preserved, unzip the file using your favorite application to handle zip files (WinZip, 7zip, WinRAR, Windows extractor, etc.).

11. There will now be a folder named with random numbers.

12. Double-click the folder from the previous step, then doubleclick the index.html file. You now have an offline Web page that has the Facebook information for that profile.

Other Resources

Facebook's FAQ for Download Your Information

Video Showing How to Download Facebook Information

Reply All? Not for Legal Communications!

These days, email between lawyers and their clients is standard; in fact, it's often the preferred medium of communication. It's fast. It's easy. It helps keep things organized. It can be done in a bathrobe. And it saves money.

Oh, and it can also lose the case. And that's almost what happened in Charm v. Kohn, 2010 WL 3816716 (Mass. Super. Sept. 30, 2010).

Cyberspace Under Siege

Law firms are likely targets for attacks seeking to steal information off computer systems

Andy V. Sabett remembers some years ago when a law firm installed glass-breakage sensors on the windows of its 43rd-floor conference room, where documents often were compiled for big cases. The firm wanted to guard against the possibility that someone would rappel from the skyscraper's observation deck and break through the windows to steal sensitive information.

That kind of security plan might have been sufficient back in the days of Sean Connery's James Bond, but it's hardly adequate to protect against the security threats hanging over law firms today.

For the Government's failure to preserve text messages sent between investigating agents and a cooperating witness, the court found sanctions were warranted and ordered that the jury would received a "spoliation charge" allowing (but not requiring) it to infer that the deleted messages were favorable to the defendants.

Read more here

Court Imposes Monetary Sanctions for "Willful Dereliction" of Discovery Obligations 

Nycomed U.S. Inc., v. Glenmark Generics LTD., 2010 WL 3173785 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 11, 2010)

In this pharmaceuticals patent litigation, the plaintiff moved to strike portions of the defendants' pleadings due to its unjustified withholding of relevant evidence and willful failure to search two important and obvious repositories for responsive ESI. The defendants argued its withholding was justified because the documents had already been produced by a third party, and claimed the ESI repositories had been simply "overlooked." Rejecting the defendants' excuses, the court determined that the underinclusive nature of the defendants' discovery efforts and searches was willful - not an inadvertent omission. Based on the defendants' "willful dereliction of its discovery duties" and its status as a "substantial multinational corporation," the court found that monetary sanctions in the amount of $100,000 to the plaintiff and $25,000 to the court clerk were justifiable. The court denied more severe sanctions based on the level of prejudice suffered by the plaintiff and declined to award attorneys' fees noting the "resolution of these matters is long overdue."