Monday, January 12, 2009

Getting 'served' via Facebook

I'm doing a lot of social media research today and I've come across an interesting article. A judge in Australia allowed legal papers to be served to a defendant through Facebook. The defendant was proving difficult to reach and since the person in question was Facebook friends with others in the trial, the judge allowed it to happen.

There are all sorts of legal issues standing in the way of this being standard practice but it's an interesting phenomena. In a study that I completed recently on consumer banking, fear of identity theft was one of consumer's top concerns. Given the mass appeal of Facebook, I wondered if Facebook could play the role of authenticator when circumstances warrant it. 

As an example, one could use one's Facebook login to enter their bank site and authenticate transactions online and offline. Given that Facebook is an extension of one's person, versus an abstraction of one's person, why not. I do hope security gets beefed up significantly before we go in this direction. Also this be something that's standardized, not an adhoc situation created by random judges like this one. 

Hat tip [All Facebook]

No comments: