DAWN BEYE'S teenage daughter suffers from anorexia nervosa and
had to be treated in hospital at a cost of about $1,000 a day.
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the Beyes'
insurance company, covered one month of the bills but then
balked, demanding evidence that the affliction was “biologically
based” rather than psychological. So Ms Beye got together with
parents of other anorexic and bulimic teenagers and sued.
Horizon immediately asked to see practically everything the
teenagers had said on their Facebook and MySpace profiles, in
instant-messaging threads, text messages, e-mails, blog posts
and whatever else the girls might have done online.  The Beyes'
lawyer, David Mazie at Mazie, Slater, Katz & Freeman, objected
on the grounds that Horizon's demands violated the girls'
privacy. He lost. So hard disks and web pages are being scoured
in order for the case to proceed. Gathering and then sifting
through all the electronic information that a few teenage girls
have generated is excessive and daunti