EDITORIAL: Web privacy fading into the horizon

A judge has ordered a Long Island woman to open up her Facebook and MySpace pages as part of a lawsuit she filed claiming she was injured when her chair collapsed. And the Obama administration is working on a plan to make Facebook, BlackBerry and others render their services accessible to government eavesdropping in the event of a wiretap order.

It's long been clear that "Internet" and "privacy" don't belong in the same sentence, but these developments suggest that the Internet, once idealized for its position outside the legal system and beyond the power of government, is subject to the same difficult tradeoffs as earlier technologies.

In the chair case, the manufacturer is after evidence - such as photos - that could show the plaintiff's activities after her injuries were not all that limited. Like diaries, letters and other personal documents intended for limited circulation, social-networking pages are reasonably subject to subpoena.

The administration's plans raise more fundamental issues. By insisting that any digital communications be susceptible to "wire" tapping, the federal government would be mandating a backdoor means of access sure to be abused by hackers, terrorists, or even by law enforcement authorities. And determined conspirators will still find ways to exchange encrypted messages out of official earshot. Still, some expansion of the government's digital surveillance capabilities may be needed, whether or not there is an actual wire to tap. hN