Did this Facebook trick go too far?

The Facebook page for Sondra Prince which was actually set up by the DEA using the identity of Sondra Arquiett. Pic: AP. Source: AP

THE US government's Drug Enforcement Administration has been taken to court after setting up a fake Facebook account using real photographs and personal information it took from the mobile phone of a New York woman.

The agency hoped to trick Sondra Arquiett's friends and associates into revealing incriminating drug secrets. Having defended the tactic in its initial court filings, the Justice Department now says it is reviewing whether the Facebook guise went too far.

The fake account looked as real as any other. It included photos of Arquiett posing on the hood of a sleek BMW, and a close-up with her young son and niece. She even appeared to write that she missed her boyfriend, who was identified by his nickname.

But it wasn't her. The account was the work of DEA Agent Timothy Sinnigen, Arquiett claims in a federal court lawsuit.

The case was scheduled for trial next week in Albany, New York, although a mediator has now been selected for the dispute, court records show.

Details of the case were first reported by BuzzFeed.

The Justice Department is now reviewing a complaint that the DEA used a woman's identity to set up a fake Facebook page. Pic: AP. Source: AP

Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon said officials were reviewing both the specific incident in question and the general practice, even though the government defended the DEA's actions in earlier court papers. Fallon declined to comment further because the case was still pending.

The case shows that legal standards of privacy are struggling to keep pace with technology, which is evolving constantly. And it shows how the same social media platforms that can serve as valuable resources in criminal investigations can also raise sensitive privacy implications, which are difficult for law enforcement and the courts to navigate.

"How do you fit a new technology under your old rules? How do we think about a phone? How do we think about a Facebook account?" said Neil Richards, a privacy expert at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

Arquiett, who is now asking for $280,000, was arrested in July 2010 on charges of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. She was accused of being part of a drug distribution ring run by her boyfriend, who had been indicted previously. She could have faced up to life in prison.

Court records show that in February 2011, Arquiett pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine base. She was sentenced in January 2012 to time served and given a period of home confinement.

The pictures were taken from Sondra Arquiett's phone and used to set up a fake account. Pictured, the iPhone 6 plus. Pic: AFP/Robyn Beck. Source: AFP

In the plea agreement, Arquiett, who has also used the surname Prince, acknowledged that she was part of a drug conspiracy in Watertown, New York from 2008-10. The records also show she participated in jailhouse telephone calls with co-conspirators, and at times made three-way telephone calls connecting jailed co-conspirators with others.

The court records do not show whether Arquiett agreed to testify against any other members of the conspiracy.

In a court filing in August, the Justice Department contended that while Arquiett didn't directly authorise Sinnigen to create the fake account, she "implicitly consented by granting access to the information stored in her cellphone and by consenting to the use of that information to aid in ... ongoing criminal investigations."

The government also argued that the Facebook account was not public. A reporter was able to access it early Tuesday, but it was disabled soon afterwards.

Sondra Arquiett was accused of being part of a drug distribution ring run by her boyfriend. Source: Supplied

A spokesman for Facebook declined to comment on the dispute on Tuesday. Facebook's own policies appear to prohibit the practice, telling users that "You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission."

Donald Kinsella, one of Arquiett's lawyers, also declined to comment, and Arquiett herself did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Arquiett said in her filing that she suffered "fear and great emotional distress", and was endangered because the fake page gave the impression that she was cooperating with Sinnigen as he interacted online with "dangerous individuals he was investigating."

The fate of Arquiett's fight against the government's use of her identity is unclear. Law enforcement agencies routinely use fictitious online profiles in their investigations, including in cases of child pornography. But it's unclear how many other times a real person's identity has been used in this way.

Nate Cardozo, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties organisation, said the government's rationale was "laughable."

"If I'm cooperating with law enforcement, and law enforcement says, 'Can I search your phone?' and I hand it over to them, my expectation is that they will search the phone for evidence of a crime," Cardozo said, "Not that they will take things that are not evidence off my phone and use it in another context."