We have posted before about how social media posts in general, including the posting of selfies, can harm a personal injury case. But, selfie posts can get you killed and lead to other destructive harm as noted in an article published on July 26, 2018, by authors Allen and Heber.
The article describes how militant fighters in a war zone tracked down helicopters and destroyed them in a mortar attack by examining geo-tagged photos that had been posted to social media. The geo-tagging enabled the fighters to determine exactly where the target helicopters were located.
Why am I sharing this? Because not only are social media posts a bad thing as far as litigation goes, nearly all photos that are posted on line will contain geo-tagging (unless first scrubbed from the photo) and can show location information about the subjects in the photo. This information could be used by stalkers or others who want to track down the location of someone and do them harm. In particular families of soldiers are at-risk, but anyone who is a target of a hostile actor can be at risk. While an insurance carrier for an adverse party in a lawsuit might not be properly labeled a “hostile actor” in the sense of physical harm, they nevertheless exist to do financial harm to injury victims who have sued in court for damages.
As noted above, we have posted on the subject of social media posts and how they can be harmful to litigation several times in the past. For example, see Stop Already with the Facebook Posts. Though the hazards of social media with respect to litigation have not really changed as set forth in our past posts, the ramifications of geo-tagging ought to be taken seriously when posting photos to social media.
The Law Offices of David W. Holub is a personal injury law firm located in Merrillville, Indiana. We focus on providing efficient and effective client-centered representation. Call us at +1 (219) 736-9700 if you have questions and would like to speak to one of our attorneys.
Our new book “Fighting For Truth: A Trial Lawyer’s Insight Into What It Takes To Win” was recently ranked #1 for its category on Amazon in print and kindle.
[tweetthis]We fight for truth every day.[/tweetthis]
If you were injured and need to file a claim for compensatory damages, fill out this contact form and we will get back to you as soon as possible.