Facebook, Inc., Petitioners v. the Superior Court of the City and County of San Francisco Respondent…

Summary

The court held that the Stored Communications Act permits providers to disclose social-media communications configured by users as public under the lawful-consent exception, and that a valid state subpoena may compel such disclosure. It rejected the argument that communications restricted to a large group of friends or followers thereby become public, and rejected providers’ claimed discretion to refuse a lawful subpoena when the exception applies. Because the record did not establish the privacy configurations, reconfiguration histories, or deletion histories of the requested communications, the court vacated the Court of Appeal’s decision and ordered further proceedings in the trial court.