Your brother was on probation and his probation officer found photos of him on the internet with a beer in his hand and said that he was breaking parol is this invasion of privacy?

Answer 1

No. This isn't invasion of privacy because the internet is public. This would be just like the probation officer seeing your brother walk down the street with a beer in his hand. However, your brother could challenge the parole violation on the basis that the probation officer can't prove when the photos were taken. An example... Say I'm on parole and one of the conditions of that parole is that I can't leave the state. The parole lasts from January of 2008 to December of 2008. Well, I could post photos of a trip I took to Florida 5 years ago on the internet tomorrow, 8/6/08. It doesn't mean that I was in Florida and violated my probation by leaving the state during my probation. It just means I posted pics of myself out of state during my probation. Well, this is the same thing. How can your brother's probation officer tell if the photos of him with the beer in his hand were taken while your brother is on parole? Just because the pics were posted on the internet while he's on parole doesn't mean he violated parole. The only way this argument wouldn't work is if the probation officer has some way to prove when the photos were taken. But there are only two ways to do this: 1. The probation officer knows who took the pictures and the person who took the pictures will testify that the photo was taken while your brother was on parole, or 2. There's something in the photo or on the web page where the photo is that identifies the date the photo was taken, like a date stamp from a digital camera, a blog entry that says something like, "My party on such and such a date," or there's something in the photo itself to show when the pic was taken, like a 2008 graduation party banner or something like that. So, unless the PO has some way to prove when the photo was taken, your brother can argue that the PO has no way to prove that the photo in question was taken while your brother was on parole.