Facebook's Latest Litigation -- Outing a User

It's just another day, another lawsuit for Facebook. This time a high school dean is suing the company to release information about an individual who created a fake Facebook profile for the dean and used it to send inappropriate messages to students.

When Facebook was told of this fake profile months ago, the company immediately removed it. But Dean Tim Puntarelli is pushing on with the lawsuit to learn the identity of the profile's creator so he can ensure proper punishment and a lesson to all other students.

Now, a judge has ordered the social networking giant to actually hand over information about the profile's creators. Facebook's privacy policy requires a subpoena before the company will release any information. Under this ruling, Facebook must hand over the IP information of the profile's creator. The IP, or Internet Protocol address, is simply a number identifying the Internet-connected computer, so it won't necessarily out the individual, but it will definitely give Roncalli High School a starting point.

Unfortunately for today's students, what was previously considered fun pranks is no longer as much fun. With services like Facebook and MySpace keeping a digital paper trail and the risks of identify theft so high, school districts are no longer letting fun pranks slide on by.

Then again, back in the day the preferred method of giving a teacher or administrator a bad name was by spreading rumors. Now, creating fake profiles misrepresenting the person takes this kind of a prank to a very dangerous level that needs to be handled accordingly.

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