You probably know not to post things online that could bite you later, but many of us do it all the time anyway—often without even realizing it. Whether it's a friend tagging you in a photo or admitting you torrent your movies in a Facebook status, even innocuous posts or photos can damage your relationships, get you in trouble at work, or even land you in legal hot water. Here's what we mean, and how to stop.


Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said that the internet "needs a delete button;" that sometimes erasure is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, right now that button doesn't exist, and we've all heard stories about people in power tweeting things they shouldn't have, deleting them, and still getting into trouble because of the Internet's long memory.

That long memory poses a problem for all of us. Everything you say on the internet is archived for posterity, and even if you wanted to erase it, someone could always dig it up and use it against you. Whether you post to Facebook, admitting you torrent all of your movies and invite others to use your sources, or you Instagram a photo of your weed stash, once it's out there, it's out forever. Depending on how attractive a target you are, one day that photo could be used to deny you a job, or that post could land you a fine from the MPAA.


It may sound crazy, but we don't have to look too far for examples. Social media "trawling," or the process of digging through a political candidate's online history to find nuggets that can be used against them, is becoming commonplace. Remember the Georgia teacher who was wrongfully fired because a Facebook photo of her enjoying a beer landed on the desk of her principal (even though her privacy settings were high and she wasn't friends with any of her students)? It makes sense to speak with special care on the internet. You never know when whatever you say can and will be used against you.

How the Things You Post Online Can Bite You Later

We've already explained that it's virtually impossible to not break the law every day. From ripping DVDs that you own to removing DRM from your ebooks and movies, it's almost unavoidable. What is avoidable, however, is implicating or embarrassing yourself all over the internet. Even if you're a nobody now, you may eventually be somebody—or at least somebody with an enemy who has enough time on their hands to make sure you have a really bad day.


To sort out what you can say and what you should avoid, we sat down with Derek Bambauer, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Arizona, who offered some ways we may unknowingly admit to committing a crime, and how we can learn to speak freely without fear the RIAA or the FBI may suddenly take an interest in us.


You Incriminate Yourself Legally

During the 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup riots, police used YouTube footage taken not just by perpetrators, but by other people just recording the scene to track down, charge, and prosecute people of vandalism and disorderly conduct. In that case, they didn't even have to brag about their actions, they just forgot that we live in a constantly surveilled world, and that YouTube exists. Gallon Smashing, a fad where people record themselves in a grocery store tossing gallons of milk into the air while they intentionally throw themselves to the ground—all to record the (presumably) hilarious reactions of their fellow shoppers—took YouTube by storm. Trouble is, authorities didn't even have to look hard to find the kids doing this and charge them. From the Know Your Meme page on the phenomenon:

On March 22nd, MyFoxDC reported that Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County police department has charged the three teenagers with seven counts each of misdemeanor destruction of property and disorderly conduct. According to the police statement, the local authorities were investigating the phenomenon for several weeks through duplicate uploads of the grocery store prank on YouTube, even after the pranksters decided to pull the videos after racking in more than three millions of views and spawning copycat attempts in Britain, France and Germany.


In this case, they did it to themselves. Granted, their sudden fame and the rise in popularity of their videos made them attractive targets, but even if they'd uploaded them years ago, they'd still be there, waiting for someone to stumble on them. Even if it wasn't law enforcement that caught them, a potential employer wouldn't care to find that in Google results for their next star candidate.


Commenting on blogs or starting your own blog carries some of the same issues that posting to social networks does. It's easy to wind up on the wrong side of the law or earn a nastygram from a group like the RIAA by admitting to doing something, even if it's in the name of public discussion. For example, the image to the left was actually taken from our own Facebook page.

If you have a blog about torrenting, you're likely fine. If you have a blog post about how to download Game of Thrones (um, like this one), you could be in trouble. It's not likely that HBO will come after you. But they might. So, much turns on your tolerance for risk. If you need to make a point about downloading because it's important to you, and you're willing to tolerate a bit of risk, then go ahead. But don't admit to unlawful activity without at least considering the down side.



Also, the more visible you are, the more risk you run. If I put up a post about how to download Game of Thrones on Info/Law, I'm pretty safe, because about three people read my blog. If Lifehacker puts up a post about how to download Game of Thrones, that's a different matter. Content owners and law enforcement fish where the fish are.


While it's unlikely the RIAA or MPAA are looking for real names in the comments on blogs or torrent files at The Pirate Bay, you may have a problem if those comments or posts are the only things that appear when people Google your name.

Remember the old adage: Don't put anything online that you wouldn't want publicly associated with you, out in the open. It's especially true for social networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Google+, since all of those networks have so much information about you, and all of them are willing (with varying degrees of hesitation) to turn that information over to authorities, industry groups, or anyone who asks.


You Implicate Yourself at Work

Even if it's serious, being careless about what you say can cost you your job, a future job, or ruin your personal relationships. Complaining about your job on Twitter can get you fired, and an innocuous photo of you taking an afternoon nap can leak the next major DLC for a very popular video game. It doesn't take much. Derek explains:

I can think of lots of ways to make mistakes with social media or other communications that have nothing to do with law enforcement. Imagine discussing some aspect of your job on Facebook or Twitter: maybe you complain about how the new product launch is going, or say that a co-worker is a jerk. The former might, if you work for a publicly traded company, run afoul of the securities laws. The latter might get back to your co-worker, or even get you fired.


A cheesy photo of you and a friend in a secure facility, griping about your boss or the software you use at work, or posting a terrible GlassDoor review of your company while you still work there can all wind you in hot water with HR, or embarrass someone else at the company with the weight to have you fired.

You Embarrass Yourself Personally


Getting in trouble with the law or with your employer are bad enough, but they're not the only ways a little careless speech or a thoughtless photo can get you in trouble. I have friends who regularly fill their Facebook timelines with photos of themselves hitting the clubs and being socialites, all completely public, with no real thought about how much perception matters.

Of course, they're bright and intelligent people who are just interested in sharing with friends, but we've already established that potential employers look for these things before they interview or hire you, and they will judge you based on what they find. You can complain, you can say you wouldn't want to work for them anyway, but at the end of the day you're the one without a job because you were sure everyone—and we mean everyone—just had to see you and your friends drunk at the bar. We've already talked about the stupid things you do on Facebook, and one of them is oversharing, regardless of the social networks you choose.


It's not just you, either. Your friends tagging you in photos at a party, shots of your friends drinking underage (or worse, kids Instagramming their underage drinking photos at your house), your ex tagging you in every embarrassing photo they can upload to Facebook just to get back at you: The things other people post can cause other problems for you, even if you're normally careful about what you say online (or even if you weren't there). One teacher's ex-girlfriend waged a months-long campaign to ruin his life, defying court orders and legal penalties—and he's the one who gets to suffer.


What You Can Do to Speak Freely and Protect Yourself

Now that we've run through some of the troublesome things we post online (and Derek had plenty more where these came from), what can you do about it? How can you communicate openly and freely online without running the risk of landing in court or ending your career? Here are some suggestions.


Think before you post . Like we said, don't say it in public if you don't want it to be public—and yes, you should consider the internet a public place, even if you think you're speaking privately. Derek advises that you think about what you're posting, and who you're sharing it with before you start venting. Sometimes it's harmless, but you don't want your midday complaints about a botched product rollout to get back around to your boss.

. Like we said, don't say it in public if you don't want it to be public—and yes, you should consider the internet a public place, even if you think you're speaking privately. Derek advises that you think about what you're posting, and who you're sharing it with before you start venting. Sometimes it's harmless, but you don't want your midday complaints about a botched product rollout to get back around to your boss. Learn to use the privacy settings on your social networks. If you're not already, get familiar with the privacy tools Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other social networks make available to you. We have an always-up-to-date guide to Facebook privacy Georgia teacher we mentioned earlier


Use pseudonyms, but don't put too much faith in them. If you're remotely worried about what you plan to say or just want a little room to speak freely, a pseudonym is a good idea. However, they're not bulletproof. If you sign up for a Blogger account, it's ultimately tied to a Google account. Even commenter accounts on most websites require a real name or email address you have access to, and that makes you traceable. Sites that use Facebook comments are even worse, no matter how many fake middle, first, or last names you use. Plus, if you use the same pseudonym often, you may have it connected to a traceable account somewhere you've forgotten, which then exposes everywhere else you've used that name.



Derek brought up the Google v. Cohen case as a perfect example of a pseudonym gone wrong. In the case, an anonymous blogger, posting to his own Blogger account (hosted by Google), wound up in legal hot water over eight posts, all on the same day. The blogger used a pseudonym, and the blog wasn't even popular. The site (gone now) was about the New York fashion scene, but didn't hesitate to call out specific individuals as "skanks," "shanky," and "hos." Those individuals found the blog, and asked Google to out the blogger's identity so he could be sued for defamation. Google initially refused but by the end of the case, the blogger was unmasked, despite his protests. The privacy a pseudonym offers is only as deep as a hosting company or ISP are willing to offer you, Derek explains. Working with pseudonyms helps a little bit, but how much depends on what you've shared with the platform or provider, and how readily they'll turn that information over. Google and Twitter have been pretty privacy-protective, but some ISPs will give up your information quite readily. The way to think about this is about effort: using a pseudonym makes someone work a bit harder to link the information to you, but it doesn't make it impossible. And, you aren't really protected at all against law enforcement.


Be impersonal about what you say, or avoid the issue entirely. If you're discussing something you did, or something you have knowledge about, Derek recommends you keep your statements as impersonal as possible. The same applies to blog posts and tutorials: "You might consider" and "Some people do" are your friends. Disclaimers—like the ones people infamously add to their YouTube videos to try and avoid them getting taken down—never help, because saying you didn't intend to break the law, doesn't change the fact that you've already proven you have. Instead, remember that talking about a topic isn't incriminating: I think I'd offer people two initial pieces of advice. One is straightforward: don't give instructions about how to violate copyright law/the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act/etc. You can certainly tell people how to use BitTorrent. But don't tell them how to find "Dark Knight Rises" on BitTorrent. The second is to de-personalize things. Instead of saying, "When I use BitTorrent to download 'Dark Knight Rises,' this happens," say, "I think one thing that people encounter when they download 'Dark Knight Rises' is..." Make it about the issue, not about you. Talk to an attorney, or reach out to a friendly organization. If you do run into legal issues because of something you posted to Twitter or Facebook, or if you really want to start a blog but don't want to run afoul of the law, it's a good idea to talk to a lawyer with experience on Internet issues. Derek also noted that some law schools have clinics that may be able to provide low-cost or free legal assistance, whether it's the RIAA that's trying to use your statements against you, or a company that's fired you because you complained publicly about their working conditions.



You may also think that your right to free speech or expression offers some protection here. Unfortunately, it usually doesn't. We explained why when we talked about freedom of speech on the internet, but at the end of the day, the Internet just isn't public space, so it's not protected by the First Amendment. If you're a whistleblower, or there's some public angle to your situation, Derek says organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Public Citizen, or the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) may be able to help.


If you're smart and careful, you'll likely never run up against the RIAA, MPAA, or law enforcement, and anyone who Googles you before an interview won't turn up anything you'll have to explain when you meet them. However, sometimes it's out of your hands. Someone might impersonate you just because they can, or they may have an axe to grind with you. Plus, even if you're careful with what you say and post online, your friends may inadvertently embarrass you online. Derek has some parting advice:

People implicate themselves all the time: IP infringement, harassment, assault, drug use (ALL THE TIME), underage drinking...it's remarkable. Mostly, it's harmless. But there's risk. The larger advice is to think about what's tied to your individual identity versus being anonymous/pseudonymous. Will your future employer find this? Your parents? Your next boyfriend/girlfriend? This is about one's on-line identity, and managing that.


If you do find yourself in a bad position, there are things you can do to clean up your online identity, but in this case, prevention is the best medicine.

Derek Bambauer is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Arizona , for his assistance with this post. You can find his blog here , and follow him on Twitter at @dbambauer . He graciously offered his expertise for this post, and we thank him.

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