Facebook said in a statement that “too extensive search warrants — giving the authorities the power to retain hundreds of people’s account info forever — are unconstitutional and raise significant issues about the privacy of people’s on-line advice.”

Search warrants are only able to be be challenged by a defendant after evidence has been collected by prosecutors. But Facebook claimed warrants for its users’ advice ought to have an alternative protocol. Because release and Facebook would need to collect users’ info in replying a civil subpoena to obey the warrant, as it would, the social network claimed it should be permitted to protest the warrant on users’ benefit.

A five-member panel of appellate judges on Tuesday disagreed, saying neither national nor state law supplies a right to defendants before they are applied. “We see no foundation for supplying Facebook a greater right than its clients are afforded,” the judges wrote.

The opinion, in a case involving 381 individuals suspected of Social Security fraud, has consequences for the 1.4 billion people who’ve active Facebook accounts.

Google, the American Civil Liberties Union as well as Pinterest, submitted briefs in support of the case of Facebook.

Mariko Hirose, a staff lawyer together with the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the opinion was especially unsatisfactory because “there isn’t lots of law on these problems right now.” An opinion restricting search warrants would have been significant, she said, “because it is so simple for government agencies to seize digital information from service providers, like Facebook and e-mail accounts, where we save lots of private info regarding our own lives.”

Facebook claimed that users possess the expectation of privacy and post on the website with regularity. Facebook called the warrants “the digital equivalent of confiscating everything in someone’s house.”

That record is turning into a robust instrument which can be utilized in courts, often in surprising ways, as social media becomes a complete record of our day-to-day lives.

During Casey Anthony’s trial in 2011, for instance, the prosecution presented Facebook pictures of Anthony partying following the departure of her daughter Caylee, in an effort to show the callous mindset of Anthony. It did not function.

Facebook pictures of users performing physical efforts are put to use to target disability fraud and Social Security. Since 2010, decoy Facebook profiles have been used by the Justice Department, and trained FBI agents to mine for braggarts who confess to their offenses to their Facebook friends.

Status upgrades, which may be tracked to a place-unique IP address, have been a helpful source of alibis. He was identified by a witness in a lineup, however a Facebook status upgrade.

Facebook is posting an extensive record of the search warrant litigation. Facebook’s help facility enables users to download their account information all into a zip file, to see what could possibly be published in response to a warrant.