Judge Orders Creditor to Stay Off Debtor's Social Networking Pages
The lawsuit filed by Melanie Beacham over alleged harassment by MarkOne Financial is still ongoing.
But in the meantime, a Florida judge has ordered the debt collector not to contact Beacham or her family and friends over Facebook or any other social networking site, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
Her lawyer, Billy Howard of Morgan & Morgan, calls the unusual ruling in the Pinellas Circuit Court case groundbreaking.
The company did not respond to a request for comment from the newspaper. However, it said in a written statement provided to the Atlantic magazine last year that “MarkOne’s policy is to only use Facebook to locate customers when the customer has a fully public profile, and when the customer has not responded to MarkOne through conventional means. Our policy is to respect privacy disclosure requirements and no negative or account information is shared with third parties.”
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Lawsuit Points to Alleged New Tool in Debt-Collection Arsenal: Facebook”
