A suspected murderer has been sent to prison, but not for the crime he was arrested for.
Stephen Nicholson was instead jailed for refusing to share his Facebook password with police, which they claimed obstructed their investigation into the stabbing of 13-year-old Lucy McHugh.
Nicholson had argued that giving police access to his private Facebook messages could expose information relating to cannabis, but the judge described this excuse as “wholly inadequate”, considering the severity of the case.
The case once again draws attention to the Regulation Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which was introduced in 2000 to give police investigating a crime the power to compel people to disclose a password used to access a phone, computer or any service accessed through an electronic device.
Nicholson pleaded guilty to the RIPA charge, for which he received a 14 month jail term.
How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you
1/9 Lock your profile down
If you haven’t done this already, do it now. In Settings, hit the Privacy tab. From here, you can control who gets to see your future posts and friends list. Choose from Public, Friends, Only Me and Custom in the dropdown menu.
2/9 Limit old posts
Annoyingly, changing this has no effect on who’s able to see your past Facebook posts. Instead, on the Privacy page, you have to click on Limit Past Posts, then select Limit Old Posts and finally hit Confirm on the pop-up.
3/9 Make yourself harder to find
You can stop completely random people from adding you by selecting Friends of Friends from the dropdown menu in the Who can send you friend requests? section of the Privacy page. It’s also worth limiting who can find your Facebook profile with your number and email address.
At the bottom of the page is the option to prevent search engines outside of Facebook from linking to your profile.
4/9 Control access to your Timeline
You can limit who gets to post things on your Timeline and who gets to see posts on your Timeline too. In Settings, go to Timeline and Tagging and edit the sections you want to lock down.
5/9 Block people
When you block someone, they won’t be able to see things you post on your Timeline, tag you, invite you to events or groups, start conversations with you or add you as a friend. To do it, go to Settings and Blocking. Annoyingly, you have to block people on Messenger separately.
You can also add friends to your Restricted list here, which means they’ll still be friends with you but will only be able to see your public posts and things you share on a mutual friend’s Timeline.
6/9 Review tags
One of Facebook’s handiest privacy features is the ability to review posts you’re tagged in before they appear on your Timeline. They’ll still be visible on the News Feed while they’re fresh, but won’t be tied to your profile forever. In Timeline and Tagging, enable Timeline review controls.
7/9 Clean up your apps
You can view a list of all of the apps you’ve connected to your Facebook account by going to Settings and Apps. The list might be longer than you expected it to be. It’s worth tidying this up to ensure things you no longer use lose access to your personal information.
If you don’t want to log into websites and apps with your facebook account, scroll down and turn Platform off.
8/9 Change your ad preferences
You can view a list of everything Facebook thinks you’re into and tinker with your ad preferences by going to Settings and Adverts. A lot more information is displayed on the desktop site than the app, so we’d recommend doing this on a computer.
9/9 Download your data
Facebook lets you download all of the data it has on you, including the posts you’ve shared, your messages and photos, ads you’ve clicked on and even the IP addresses that are logged when you log in or out of the site. It’s a hell of a lot of information, which you should download to ensure you never over-share on the social network again.
1/9 Lock your profile down
If you haven’t done this already, do it now. In Settings, hit the Privacy tab. From here, you can control who gets to see your future posts and friends list. Choose from Public, Friends, Only Me and Custom in the dropdown menu.
2/9 Limit old posts
Annoyingly, changing this has no effect on who’s able to see your past Facebook posts. Instead, on the Privacy page, you have to click on Limit Past Posts, then select Limit Old Posts and finally hit Confirm on the pop-up.
3/9 Make yourself harder to find
You can stop completely random people from adding you by selecting Friends of Friends from the dropdown menu in the Who can send you friend requests? section of the Privacy page. It’s also worth limiting who can find your Facebook profile with your number and email address.
At the bottom of the page is the option to prevent search engines outside of Facebook from linking to your profile.
4/9 Control access to your Timeline
You can limit who gets to post things on your Timeline and who gets to see posts on your Timeline too. In Settings, go to Timeline and Tagging and edit the sections you want to lock down.
5/9 Block people
When you block someone, they won’t be able to see things you post on your Timeline, tag you, invite you to events or groups, start conversations with you or add you as a friend. To do it, go to Settings and Blocking. Annoyingly, you have to block people on Messenger separately.
You can also add friends to your Restricted list here, which means they’ll still be friends with you but will only be able to see your public posts and things you share on a mutual friend’s Timeline.
6/9 Review tags
One of Facebook’s handiest privacy features is the ability to review posts you’re tagged in before they appear on your Timeline. They’ll still be visible on the News Feed while they’re fresh, but won’t be tied to your profile forever. In Timeline and Tagging, enable Timeline review controls.
7/9 Clean up your apps
You can view a list of all of the apps you’ve connected to your Facebook account by going to Settings and Apps. The list might be longer than you expected it to be. It’s worth tidying this up to ensure things you no longer use lose access to your personal information.
If you don’t want to log into websites and apps with your facebook account, scroll down and turn Platform off.
8/9 Change your ad preferences
You can view a list of everything Facebook thinks you’re into and tinker with your ad preferences by going to Settings and Adverts. A lot more information is displayed on the desktop site than the app, so we’d recommend doing this on a computer.
9/9 Download your data
Facebook lets you download all of the data it has on you, including the posts you’ve shared, your messages and photos, ads you’ve clicked on and even the IP addresses that are logged when you log in or out of the site. It’s a hell of a lot of information, which you should download to ensure you never over-share on the social network again.
Originally intended as an anti-terror measure, London firm Saunders Law explains that it can be used for a much broader range of criminal offences.
“The police are able to request disclosure if the reason is to prevent or detect crime, if it’s in the interests of national security or if it is in the interests of the economic wellbeing of the UK,” the firm states on its website.
“This definition can be applied very widely to the extent that it can cover any crime, no matter how minor.”
Refusing to comply with RIPA can result in a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment, or five years in cases involving national security or child indecency.
It is not the first time someone has been jailed in the UK for failing to disclose a password. In 2010, Oliver Drage was sentenced to 16 weeks at a young offenders institution after he didn’t share a 50-character password with police investigating child sexual exploitation.
Detective Sergeant Neil Fowler form Lancashire police said at the time the custodial sentence demonstrated how serious the offence was.
“Computer systems are constantly advancing and the legislation used here was specifically brought in to deal with those who are using the internet to commit crime,” he said. “It sends a robust message out to those intent on trying to mask their online criminal activities that they will be taken before the courts with the ultimate sanction, as in this case, being a custodial sentence.”
Saunders Law explains that other laws can also be called upon to compel people to divulge their passwords, such as Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
As the firm points out, criminals may be wiser to not disclose a password and plead guilty to the RIPA offence, rather than face significantly more severe charges brought on by whatever the password-protected data reveals.
“There could be a completely disproportionate result if someone is imprisoned for not providing a password but not the crime they are originally under investigation for, of which they might be innocent,” the firm stated.
