Do the police or school administrations have the right to view private facebook profiles?

[hey.shannon]

OK, so does the local police or my public high school administration have the right to "hack" into facebook and view my profile, even if it's set as private? [It's set so that "only my friends" can see it.]

As a minor, do I have any rights to privacy with my privatized online profiles?
Does my school administration have a right to punish me or talk to my parents about what they could possibly find online?
[I don't have anything incriminating. just questions. ;p]

[kevw25]

That is not up to you. That is up to the owner of facebook.

[beardog4314]

The internet is not a good place to look for privacy.

[elysialaw]

If the police have a warrant I am sure they can.

School administrators...no. I suppose if they asked Facebook and Facebook consented, yah...but otherwise they have no authority to do so.

[evil_paul]

When it comes to on-line privacy. There is no such thing. The Internet is worldwide, which on can argue makes it public domain. Moreover, if you were using a school computer, you would also not have any reasonable expectation of privacy either since it would technically be a public computer. Along those lines, I imagine that your school along with the district have policies as to what you can use the computers are to be used for.

Additionally, I don't know how much you know about computers, but most security systems aren't that complicated to "hack"; moreover, how do you know the police or your school is hacking into your profile? And if you have nothing incriminating why are you so concerned?

[archkarat]

The police in my area got access through the courts to a suspects myspace account to look for evidence into why he stabbed his GF

[El Scott]

I love Facebook. Its a good place to see where the parties in your area are at. I have also looked at people's public profiles and clubs in Facebook and Myspace for information. It is so nice to charge someone with marijuana and then go to their profile and print off pictures of them smoking pot. I have never hacked into anyone's account just gotten into public areas. You may want to e-mail Facebook and ask them about this. A search warrant may be needed.