Thread by @BTSARMYBarAssoc

Hello, we've been tweeted a couple of times about the legality of someone using your tweets in an article, in research, etc.

The short answer is, it's complicated, but probably yes.

The long answer is that it really depends on the circumstances.

Most privacy laws operate on the basis of "a reasonable expectation of privacy".

For example, if you live alone and said or did something in your home, you have a high expectation of privacy and that expectation is reasonable.

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However, the more ppl who have access to the area where you are saying or doing the thing, the lower your reasonable expectation of privacy.

Now just bc it is in public doesn't necessarily mean you have no expectation of privacy.

(See the next few tweets for examples.)

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Say you're having a private conversation with a friend in a public park.

You have some expectation of privacy bc its a conversation between 2 ppl, but you should still be aware of the risks bc it is in a public place.

In these cases, what you're talking about also matters.

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Continuing with the previous example, if you were talking about committing a crime, you have less expectation of privacy bc you ought to know that the public, hearing your conversation, would report it to the police.

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But if you were talking about a medical issue, you have a higher expectation of privacy bc people should know that your medical information is not their business regardless of where they hear it.

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Though even that depends, bc if you are currently suing for medical malpractice and discussing how your injuries aren't that bad, then again you have less expectation of privacy.

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When it comes to Twitter it depends on whether your account is public or private, if you use information such as hashtags or @ other accounts, how many followers you have and what you are talking about.

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All of the factors in the previous tweet would need to be considered when deciding whether there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.

A public account with only 2 followers may have a higher expectation of privacy than a private account with 3000 followers.

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To use our account as an example, even if we went private today, given that we have 25k followers, we would not have a high expectation of privacy.

The expectation goes down even further since we're a public acct and we use #'s linked to public events/discussions.

Added to all that, because social media is in writing and online (and therefore essentially permanent) there is, in general, a lower expectation of privacy than for example, if you shouted your opinion in the middle of a busy mall.

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Lastly, again because it's online, you are both anonymous and also not. While people often don't use their actual name, you are still giving everyone your "name" and "contact info".

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To go back to the park example, unless you are wearing a sign with your full name and phone number, no one in that park will really know who you are, so even if they overhear you, they likely cannot do anything with that information.

Which increases the expectation of privacy.

As to whether the use of tweets without consent is ethical, that also depends.

There is a large grey area between "best practices" (which would be to get consent) and actually unethical.

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And whether it is unethical would depend on the profession of the person using the tweets, for what purpose they are used and how they are used.

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TLDR:

Yes, it is likely legal for someone to take tweets from a public twitter account and use them for any purpose.

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If you don't want your tweets used in that way, there are ways you can lower the risk (however, be aware that nothing is guaranteed.)

- make your account private

- indicate in your bio that you don't want your tweets screenshotted

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- block persons/places you don't want to have access

- State in your bio that you don't want your information/tweets being used without your express consent.

Again, NONE of these guarantee that your tweets cannot be used as it depends on the circumstances.