"Blurry-Edged" Social Networks

Privacy, Free Speech, and 'Blurry-Edged' Social Networks [SSRN] by Stanford Law's Lauren Amy Gelman, 50 Boston College Law Review ___ (2009) discusses the technological, social, and legal regimes that have combined to create the tension between the positive benefits for free speech and the negative effects on user privacy in social networks. From the abstract: "This tension has been exacerbated by technologies that permit users to create social networks with “blurry edges” - places where they post information generally intended for a small network of friends and family, but which is left available to the whole world to access [because] the technology that enables these communities .. also creates an illusion of privacy and control that the law fails to recognize." Hat tip to Media Law Prof Blog. [JH]