Deposing a computer?

[Shari]

I was advised to not email the advocates because of the potential of litigation.

One of them has actually had her computer "deposed" in a case.

So I got to thinking, can they do that to my computer, as well? Should I stop being on here at all, not just email, but all electronic communication about this?

 

[klmno]

That's why I'm very careful- I don't know if they would haul in a computer unless there was a major criminal case involved, but I do know that my son's previous GAL (and presumably others) looked online to try to find stuff about difficult child and me to use against me in court- and this was at the urging of my bro. So that shows that when there is a court case going on, people will do all sorts of things to discredit a person so they look more credible or "better" to the judge.

 

[Shari]

Unless they direct me otherwise, i'm going status quo. If they'd find this place, so be it. It is an accurate log of what has happened. There are minor modifications to protect privacy, as suggested.

Que sera, sera.

 

[slsh]

Shari - I'm not sure about actually deposing a computer (though I suppose anything is possible, especially when you're dealing with- difficult SDs and their attorneys), but I do know we had one member many years ago whose SD actually found her on this board and tried to use her posts here against her (after twisting them this way and that) in her never-ending battles with- them. It was an incredibly ugly situation - her SD takes first place for below-the-belt maneuvering. I believe she still lurks, but does not post often anymore - if I recall correctly, after a decade she was still having major problems with- her SD.

It's good to be aware that this *is* an open board where anyone (and their attorneys) can lurk. It's the pits, but... it is what it is.

 

[DammitJanet]

I guess we should open all posts and threads with "Good Day all Lawyers and School Personnel!"

 

[klmno]

In my case, I vent so much about those in my life that it would step on a lot of people's toes and cause more animosity if they found me here. That's why I took my location off my info section and ask that those who know where I live just PM me with info when trying to help instead of posting "this area of town" or whatever. I trust the bosrd members, but I agree that it's safer to be cautious when court battles are a possibility.

 

[Marguerite]

Ditto. I still haven't got that issue resolved with difficult child 3's teacher who accused me of doing his assessment tasks for him. But I don't talk about this site at school, I don't refer other people here often (only the occasional parent who I DON'T meet at school) so I've also modified location, as has husband. I could still be tracked from here, but this way trying to find me online and prove that publicly this is me, is going to be such a long shot that I don't think they would be able to use anything against me. Besides, I've only ever spoken truth here. However, I was sufficiently worried to change my details. I might mention a location in my posts, but lately I've been playing it cooler. It's vital to stay safe.

I have had teachers at a past school track what I write and take copies of it to show around the staffroom. I had a couple of articles published some years ago, dealing with a school issue. One article I hadn't realised had even been published, I had written to the organisation about a problem and it was made into an article. The other stuff I wrote was actually favourable to the school but I know this teacher was going over it with a fine tooth comb to try to find where I had criticised the school or the staff in some way. Nasty. I found out about this because another teacher told me what was going on. I am certain that if that teacher knew about me on this site, I would have a lot of trouble.

Marg

 

[witzend]

Yes, they can depose your computer.

 

[Marg's Man]

Just remember ANYTHING you write online anywhere, anywhen, is there forever. Even if they depose your computer but, for reasons nefarious or otherwise, you have deleted, erased, wiped the files it can usually be recovered by a sufficiently determined forensic analysis. What you see on the various CSI or NCIS TV shows is not too far from the truth of what can be done if sufficient effort is made. Where the differences between reality and the dramatic situation break down is whether it is worth the effort it takes to recover the data.

For example - back in the early days of computers a student of mine accidently deleted his entire PhD thesis and did not have a backup. I was able to recover nearly all of it for him because he had only emptied the Trash file. He had done a little damage because he was trying to recover the lost files himself before he asked for help and every write operation to the hard disk chipped away at his data a little more.

Once things go out into cyberspace there are servers that are backed up all the time which keep copies of all the traffic that goes through them. This post will be stored locally on my computer until I send it, then it will go through my ISP's servers plus an unknown (to me) number of others until it gets to the CD site servers when it will become available to anyone of you reading this. It will stored for a while on your computers until you decide to close the window. The fact that you even LOOKED at this post will be stored in your browser's history and in the history files of your ISP and CD's servers plus that of the servers it went through getting between you and them.

This is why you need to be careful about anything you say online. It is all there forever and recoverable but you can take heart. For pretty well anything except truly major crimes, it is just not worth the effort of recovering this information and the skills required to recover it are not readily available to most people. The malicious [insert epithet here] who wants to know if you cheated at Bingo last week won't be able to retrieve that juicy tidbit without hacking the privacy settings of your email account when you told your relative in outer Siberia about it in an email. Put it on Facebook [or similar] or worse still tweet it and the world can get it easily.

Marg's Man