Courts are still trying to figure out what to do with social media in discovery and the privacy rights of those whose profiles are in question. And in the past 12 months, the arguing has centered on two main issues: authentication, and where the expectation of privacy stops.

Maryland, Texas and the Common Ground

There's an interesting phenomenon you may have noticed with social media if you've ever followed a parody Twitter account or connected with the wrong person on LinkedIn: People online don't actually have to be who they say they are. Tumblr, for instance, only requires an email address for sign-up, Nicole Blumenfeld, counsel and director of trust and safety at the social media company, tells Legaltech News.

“A lot of times, we get requests from law enforcement or attorneys who don't know the platform as well as I do or our users do. So we do see requests that come through every so often that include a full name and a date of birth, or something similar, where we have to explain, 'We don't collect that at all,'” Blumenfeld says.