There's a story that's been doing the rounds in the ZA press entitled; "Your private Facebook messages can be used in court against you even if you were hacked" It details a case "Harvey v Niland and Others" in the South African High Court, Eastern Cape Division where Facebook messages were deemed admissible in a case, despite having been obtained illegally.

This is pretty attention grabbing, and could have far reaching implications. Could someone hack my WhatsApp/Gmail/Facebook and use my private conversations to implicate me in a crime? What does this mean for my right to privacy over my communications, and does it change the status quo? Could out intelligence services hack citizens for mass dragnet surveillance ala the NSA? Does this have implications for the Cybercrimes bill?