Facebook friend or foe?

Facebook.
CIA government database opperation?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpLNlSKugHw

What if I said to you, fill out this survey for me. It will have information such as

-Resume
-former jobs
-places you have been
-books you have read
-all your friends
-family
-lovers
-associates
-old schools
=old companies
-who you associate with now
-group affiliations
-religious

It will also have any other personal details that you want to provide.

I am not only going to use this information to profile you, but to help me in profiling those around you. I will use the information to advertise to you, to help you find groups and other people that might be of interest to you, but I will also use it for other purposes, would you say yes?

What if I told you that this information would some day be used to find you, and anyone associated with you, should you speak out against the government?

What If I told you this information would be used to find you should you commit a crime, or just be accused of one, guilty or not.

What if I told you this info would be used to find you, should you ever flee the country, or try to go underground?

Don’t believe it, think again, Facebook is so much more than you expected.

Let’s say something happens and you have to go on the run, who is going to help you? It’s not usually going to be strangers, we are all commented. By giving out who you went to high school, middle school, university with, you have cut off that circle. By giving out the groups you are associated with, you have cut off that circle. By giving out the places you have been, you have cut off that circle. Library records, now they have a way to look for you based on reading habits. Etc.

You are boxing yourself into a corner and don’t even know it. If the day ever comes when something does happen, you blog something someone does not like, you make a comment, you have to pack and leave for any reason, no one will be able to help you, because the information is out there.

The pictures you share, all those biometrically recognisable faces. Everything you put out there is shared, and once the information is out there, it is not getting erased. Once it’s on the net, expect it to be there forever.

I don’t use facebook, but I know others who do. I have heard a couple of fun stories. When people commit crimes or are accused of crimes, wanted for questioning, etc, one of the first things cops do is go to facebook. They find out who people’s friends are, their families, connections are, where they have been, group affiliations etc.

I also had one person who does not use facebook anymore tell me, that when they were on the site, they had a pop up message, I don’t know what it’s called, but apparently you have lists of friends, and they have friends, well the pop up said, based on your list, you might know this person and might want to add them to your friendship list. The person in question who got the pop up, did know the person and it scared this person enough to get them off facebook. They are cross checking and scanning information. Seeing who knows who, who had what affiliations, who went to school with who, who is connected. Connections that you might not even think about, yet they knew.

I am not saying this can only be used for criminals, but I am saying if you value your privacy and the time ever comes when you have to hide, get out of the country, or disagree with the government, are accused of a crime even falsely, you have no place to hide. They know who is a friend of a friend of a friend, who is associated with this group, who went to this place, that, in their past, if you are on the run, where you are likely to go, and who you are likely to connect with, and who those people are connected with.

People nowadays are different than people of the past. Technology can help us, but look at the type of society that we are in. We are coming up on a surveillance society, and because of that, it might be a good idea, to not provide the government database with all your information. Information that you would be peeved off at to realise that others had, if they got it in some other way, but information that you are all too willing to freely give and share.

Use facebook if you want, but just be aware of what you are giving out. It’s not a matter of being I have done nothing wrong, I have nothing to worry about, the time will come where that will not matter. Becareful about what you are putting out there.

Also keep in mind that this information is being aggregated with other lists and other bits of information to paint a very detailed picture of you.

Don’t get me wrong, facebook from what I have heard is a great way to get together groups, etc, but if those groups are all being put together on a government controlled website, is that a good idea for your specific group? Would you go to FBI, or CIA head quarters and hold your meetings there? If so then you have nothing to worry about, or think about.

Yes they also keep trying to get me to use facebook, and I always give the same response.

Facebook CIA opperation?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10456534&pnum=0
Was facebook really started by the CIA? Now I don’t use facebook, myspace or any of those other sites admittedly, but when I first saw this article some months back it really made me wonder if the story could be true.

If the CIA really did start facebook, do you know how much information could be gathered from this operation? Even though I don’t use facebook, just about everyone else I know does.

I have heard family and friends discussing this useful little apparatus and explaining that you can find anyone on there. Well obviously not everyone on there, but quite a few people.

[quote]is a dark side to the success story that’s been spreading across the blogosphere. A complex but riveting Big Brother-type conspiracy theory which links Facebook to the CIA and the US Department of Defence. [/quote]

From what I understand of facebook it’s social networking, so you know someone, then they are on your list, and people can go onto your profile if you don’t have your privacy on, and find out who you know, and then go onto their profile and find out who they know, etc. Now that alone in and of itself is pretty violating, but can you imagine if the CIA really did start it?

[quote]Facebook’s first round of venture capital funding ($US500,000) came from former Paypal CEO Peter Thiel. Author of anti-multicultural tome ‘The Diversity Myth’, he is also on the board of radical conservative group VanguardPAC.

The second round of funding into Facebook ($US12.7 million) came from venture capital firm Accel Partners. Its manager James Breyer was formerly chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, and served on the board with Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm established by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1999. One of the company’s key areas of expertise are in “data mining technologies”.
[/quote]

Big bucks from big brother for social networking? The link to the Information Awareness Office is what’s concerning. The IAO if I remember correctly is what became of the project to have 1 million spies.
[quote]It was when a journalist lifted the lid on the DARPA’s
Information Awareness Office that the public began to show concern at its information mining projects.

Wikipedia’s IAO page says: “the IAO has the stated mission to gather as much information as possible about everyone, in a centralised location, for easy perusal by the United States government, including (though not limited to) internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records, educational transcripts, driver’s licenses, utility bills, tax returns, and any other available data.”.
[/quote]
That is some pretty good food for thought if you are a facebook user. Because I don’t use the service, I don’t feel it wise to comment further, but for those who do, maybe it’s something to think about. Usually we complain about our online privacy, but it seems at other times we might just be a little too liberal with it.

[quote]Parts of the IAO’s technology round-up included ‘human network analysis and behaviour model building engines’, which Facebook’s massive volume of neatly-targeted data gathering allows for. [/quote]

Wondering if the IAO is using this to gather information, what are they learning about how we act, behave, and how better to control a population of social creatures?

Well if you were not a little paranoid before, I hope I just added to your day.