On Jan. 7, 2015, in Nucci v. Target Corp., et al, the District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida, Fourth District, upheld a lower court’s order compelling plaintiff Maria Nucci to produce photographs originally posted to her Facebook page. (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Jan. 7, 2015). The court held there is little, if any, right to privacy in photos posted on Facebook or other similar social networking sites. In this case, the plaintiff asserted personal injuries resulting when she slipped and fell on a foreign substance in a Target store. Specifically at issue on appeal were more than 30 photos the plaintiff posted on Facebook and then removed shortly after the photographs were discussed during her deposition.

The plaintiff objected to Target’s written request to produce the photos, asserting that her use of Facebook privacy settings created a right to privacy, and further that the federal Stored Communications Act prohibited disclosure of her Facebook photos. The court balanced the plaintiff’s purported right to privacy against the relevance of the photos to her damages claim. While the court recognized that the Florida Constitution provides a broader right to privacy than the U.S. Constitution, it nonetheless held that photos posted on social networking sites are neither privileged nor protected by any privacy rights, despite the use of privacy settings.

Originally published in Law360 on March 2, 2015.