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Computer Law/Facebook chat

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Expert: - 2/7/2012


Question
Hi Chris.
For a year a go my ex girlfriend and I was made an agreement of what we should do with our apartment on facebook chat, however now she denies that we had an agreement. Unfortunately she has taken the disagreement to court. Do you now some way I can get an copy of the chat? She has unfriend me of course. Best regards Lars

Answer
Good Morning,

You may be able to write to Facebook's legal department and after sending them a notarized document stating that you are the legal owner of your account and providing them some proof of identification they may be able to retrieve a log of chats from your account. It all depends on how long ago these chats occurred and whether or not they are stored in their system and have not been overwritten.

Another way to do it is to utilize a forensic software of some kind to search your computer for the chats that may be stored on your hard drive as part of your it temporary Internet cache. If you clean out your Internet cache a regular basis then this would probably not be very helpful.

The best way is to contact Facebook and their legal department and see if you are able to retrieve information from your account which would include of course the chats. Police are required to get a search warrant signed by a judge before we can require Facebook provide us with chats or e-mail sent to Facebook. But the owners of accounts are able to give their own information as long as I can provide legal documentation proving who they are and that their owner of the account.

I hope these suggestions help, and I'm very sorry that you're having to go through this. I can imagine that is not them pleasant and must be distressing to have things progressed this far. Hang in there as with all things they will eventually come to an end.

If you don't mind let me know how things work out with Facebook as I like to improve on my answers and knowledge with each and every question that I am asked. Because I'm sure you are not the last person that is going to ask me this question.

Be well and stay safe.

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Chris Wagoner

Expertise

I can answer questions concerning Computer Crime Investigations and Internet investigations including Computer Crime Laws both at the State level and Federal level. I can answer questions on almost any crime in which a computer is used. In addition I can answer questions concerning copywrite infringement (peer to peer, and copying). I served as a police Commander and conducted and still conduct Computer Crime Investigations at the Local, State and Federal level. I have investigated all most any kind of crime with which or which involved a computer and the internet, from murders, kidnappings, extortion, drug dealing and more. I can answer questions concerning Computer Forensics (the art of recovering information from a suspects computer), Computer Crime Investigations and Internet Investigations. I am a Federally Court Recognized Expert in Computer Crime and Computer Forensics. I have worked in both Facebook and MySPace, also in Peer to Peer investigations. In addition I can answer questions concerning child predators and how to make your children safer on-line. I teach Computer Forensics, Internet Investigations, Peer to Peer Investigations and other computer crime related subjects for several colleges and the Institute of Police Technology and Management. My hobby webpage - Military Videos - http://www.youtube.com/user/3rdID8487

Experience

I conduct computer crime investigations in conjunction with the F.B.I., Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, Gainesville Police Department, and University of Florida Police Department, Levi County Sheriff’s Office, Starke Police Department and other agencies in the North Florida Court District. I provide the forensic data recovery services for those agencies as well as internet tracing and information gathering. I am a Federal Court Certified Expert in Computer Crime Investigations and Forensics. I teach Computer Forensics for the University of North Florida, Institute of Police Technology and Management. I also teach Computer Crime courses for Tallahassee Community College, Pat Thomas Law Enforcement Training Center. Associate Instructor; teach Computer Crime courses thorough out the world for IPTM. Presently Teach Cyber Crime Investigations, Computer Crime Investigations and Computer Forensic Data Recovery Course.

Education/Credentials
2 Degrees in Criminal Justice, now teach college level Data Forensics classes

Awards and Honors
Awarded the FBI Directors Award for assisting the FBI in a National Computer Crime Investigation. Awarded Dec 2002

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