[Air-L] and now for *the dark side* of facebook

Julian Hopkins j at julianhopkins.net
Thu Feb 21 19:53:16 PST 2008


Hi All,

If anyone's interested, I did a blog post once comparing (from a layperson's
point of view) the different terms of service relating to privacy of some
SNS and email services
http://www.julianhopkins.net/index.php?/archives/30-Facebook-owns-YOU!.html

I'd say that the CIA is probably interested in mining sns sites, just like
they try to gather information on any place where people can talk and
mobilize. Making tenuous connections and 'fallacies of association' have
always been the bread and butter of conspiracy theorists, but it is useful
to remember how cosy some elites become, resulting in 'inward thinking'
(can't remember the proper word) and so on.

Regards,

Julian

++++++++++
Blog: www.julianhopkins.net
Skype: julhop
IM: jfprhopkins at hotmail.com

------------------------------

Message: 13
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:21:28 +0000 (UTC)
From: Alexis Turner <subbies at redheadedstepchild.org>
Subject: Re: [Air-L] and now for *the dark side* of facebook
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0802201409230.22375 at sdf.lonestar.org>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

I'd actually like to go even further than Alex and ask, do we really believe

that the only way interested spy agencies can obtain this information is by 
getting it siphoned through companies they have a *friendly* relationship
with?  

In other words, I agree that none of this information specifically points 
to Facebook being part of some conspiracy, because, in addition to Alex's 
point of the nepotism amongst companies, the named agencies certainly 
have the abilty to log in to a system and build some simple little scrapers
to 
retrieve the data they want all by themselves, with or without assistance
from 
the company.  For that reason, I do believe the entire structure of Facebook
and 
ALL business models like it raise serious privacy concerns.  Facebook's 
connections are public knowledge and make it an easy target.  But perhaps we

should really be asking this question of ALL social networking sites.  I
think 
the Facebook discussion has lost the forest for a single tree.
-Alexis


On Wed, 20 Feb 2008, Alex Halavais wrote:

::Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:53:31 -0500
::From: Alex Halavais <alex at halavais.net>
::Reply-To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
::To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
::Subject: Re: [Air-L] and now for *the dark side* of facebook
::
::On Feb 20, 2008 12:12 AM, Kimberly De Vries <cuuixsilver at gmail.com> wrote:
::> Anyway, has anyone from Facebook ever commented on the whole
intelligence
::> community connection?
::>
::
::Is it just me, or is this a serious association fallacy. No doubt,
::network visualizations can help to root out conspiracies, criminal or
::not. But the mere fact that people associate with one another means
::little more than that: they associate with one another. Given the
::degree to which corporate boards interlock, I would be surprised if
::most companies could not be similarly associated with the intelligence
::community.
::
::Let's take one of the claims in plain English:
::
::Facebook is a site that collects a lot of information in order to
::create profiles of individuals;
::ACCELL is a VC company that invested in Facebook;
::James Breyer is on the board of ACCELL;
::James Breyer is also on the board of BBN Technologies;
::Dr. Anita Jones is on the board of BBN Technologies;
::Dr. Anita Jones at one point "oversaw" DARPA (among others);
::DARPA funded the Information Awareness Office,
::The IAO aimed to data mine profiles of individuals;
::Kevin Bacon started the IAO!
::
::(OK, I added the last one.)
::
::It's worth being critical of the overlapping membership networks of
::corporate boards, but to my mind, the above chain of connections is
::not particularly interesting.
::
::Alex
::
::
::--
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