Facebook Loses Court Fight in Its New Privacy Case

Facebook was dealt a harsh blow late Friday when a federal judge in Boston ruled that a magazine does not have to remove from its Web site court documents that contain Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's Social Security number and home address.

Among other materials, 02138 magazine published Zuckerberg's Harvard application, which contained his Social Security number, the full name of his girlfriend, and the address of his parent's house in a New York suburb.

Although some information has been redacted, the documents remain online and District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock decided that they could stay there.

"This is a victory not only for 02138, but for the First Amendment," 02138 founder Bom Kim said. "We felt we had a very important responsibility and we hope we were able to promote greater public understanding of the origins of a powerful and influential Web site."

Kim added: "The judge found that this was 'core journalism' and the original documents add to the transparency and offer an opportunity to increase unfiltered access and an opportunity for readers to have more information on which to evaluate what the story reports."

by Sam Gustin