The Duke Case

I'm glad I get to blog about this because I got to talk to my family about it over easter break. My sister went to Duke and was following the case pretty closely. Certainly this is a devastating circumstance that reflects very poorly on the university. Avoiding a discussion of the case itself, I want to reflect a little bit about the role that technology played in the case.

The e-mail contained some fairly condemning evidence that helped officials work up charges against the parties responsible. I've stated before that I'd like to live in a world where e-mails, blogs, websites, etc. were private. I'd like to think that private information that I send to one of my friends stays just that; private. Unfortunately, the world is full of crazy people that put inappropriate information that links them to certain crimes. I have no problem with officials using e-mail and blogs if they suspect that the information in them will help in investigations as secondary evidence.

More and more cases are being solved using this information. Since technology has become such a huge part of our daily lives, it is understandably going to play a large role in holding people accountable for the statements they make on the web.