Can lawyers use social media to gather information about opposing party?

The Legal Ethics Forum is reporting that the New York State Bar Association has issued an Ethics Opinion on investigations through the use of social media. The New York opinion states that, as long as the lawyer does not use deception, a lawyer can typically use any other information that is either publicly available or accessible to anyone who is a member of the network. The opinion can be found here. A similar opinion from the Philadelphia bar can be found here.

Thanks to the Legal Ethics Forum for the information and links. For more information go to the Legal Ethics Forum here and here.

UPDATE Oct 7, 2010: The Ethical Quandary has a comment here.