lsus.edu— A student reflects on how a state agency that he had applied for brought up information and pictures from his facebook account during his interview, when he belived those where secure.
Jul 11, 2006View in Crawl 4
Only the first half of the article is interesting - a gov't agency accessed a student's Facebook account on the ground of Patriot Act, while the second half is kind of generic - just raising a ethical question of employers in general should use SNS's as source of publicly available information on applicants. The Act, or its application, has been criticized by some as not quite limited to terrorist related issues. <a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act_controversy">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act_controversy</a>Is this a terrorist investigation? Did the gov't agency wanted to make sure that the applicant is not a terrorist? Possibly. But it seems that it is not the only thing the gov't has done in this case.
Gee... college student applies for a job with an agency, and they *gasp* do a background check?! Oh no! Sure, it's lame that they used the "Patriot Act" but they still actually could have seen the info without it... I know a PI who does background checks, it's not hard to dig up dirt. Seriously: if you put stuff that might cost you a job on-line and depend on the "Facebook" "Friends Only" setting, you are an idiot. Perfect for government work, though.
The government should not be using the Patriot Act to sneak into private Facebook accounts. But given the current state of affairs, this is not even shocking. Hell, it probably wasn't the worst violation of the constitution on that day. Bush and Cheney admitting that they broke the country and were stepping down, that would be surprising. Finding out that the government is illegally searching Facebook, not that surprising. This is your notice Facebook users, if you want your privacy, vote the assh**es out of congress that are allowing this crap to continue.
"Basically, you can not comment on anything in public anymore."I think there is an important document written a few hundred years ago by some guys with funny wigs that directly contradicts that statement.
But we can't vote them out, then we hate America!!! Also, without these people, who will harass the gays? Someone might buy a US flag that was made in mexico and light it on fire. Clearly some things are more important than liberty. There are people doing things that the fundamentalist christians don't like!!!! Screw liberty, some guy might be having buttsex!
The power of facebook in the hands of the government make you think. What if it was the government who made facebook? Seriously it?s not that far out there. They have millions of computers processing all the information searching for keywords and phrase that you post. Flagging certain things for humans to further investigate. If you ever get the message that your page cant be opened do to construction its because these super computers are fishing threw your profile looking for key words and phrases exp (white power, Nazi, bomb, gun, president) any one of these words starts another search and then branches out to your friends and their profiles are searched one after another. and I think its funny how most of you are only worried about face book when sites like this very site were you share your passionate views on the world is more likely to be run by the government then face book
betameJul 12, 2006
Only the first half of the article is interesting - a gov't agency accessed a student's Facebook account on the ground of Patriot Act, while the second half is kind of generic - just raising a ethical question of employers in general should use SNS's as source of publicly available information on applicants. The Act, or its application, has been criticized by some as not quite limited to terrorist related issues. <a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act_controversy">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act_controversy</a>Is this a terrorist investigation? Did the gov't agency wanted to make sure that the applicant is not a terrorist? Possibly. But it seems that it is not the only thing the gov't has done in this case.
spidomanJul 12, 2006
This account has been closed by the user
jo42Jul 12, 2006
Lesson to be learned here: Don't put ANYTHING up on the Internet with your name attached to it.
dgulbranJul 12, 2006
Gee... college student applies for a job with an agency, and they *gasp* do a background check?! Oh no! Sure, it's lame that they used the "Patriot Act" but they still actually could have seen the info without it... I know a PI who does background checks, it's not hard to dig up dirt. Seriously: if you put stuff that might cost you a job on-line and depend on the "Facebook" "Friends Only" setting, you are an idiot. Perfect for government work, though.
pgm_01Jul 13, 2006
The government should not be using the Patriot Act to sneak into private Facebook accounts. But given the current state of affairs, this is not even shocking. Hell, it probably wasn't the worst violation of the constitution on that day. Bush and Cheney admitting that they broke the country and were stepping down, that would be surprising. Finding out that the government is illegally searching Facebook, not that surprising. This is your notice Facebook users, if you want your privacy, vote the assh**es out of congress that are allowing this crap to continue.
smerndmgyJul 14, 2006
"Basically, you can not comment on anything in public anymore."I think there is an important document written a few hundred years ago by some guys with funny wigs that directly contradicts that statement.
smerndmgyJul 14, 2006
But we can't vote them out, then we hate America!!! Also, without these people, who will harass the gays? Someone might buy a US flag that was made in mexico and light it on fire. Clearly some things are more important than liberty. There are people doing things that the fundamentalist christians don't like!!!! Screw liberty, some guy might be having buttsex!
speakfthetruthSep 29, 2008
The power of facebook in the hands of the government make you think. What if it was the government who made facebook? Seriously it?s not that far out there. They have millions of computers processing all the information searching for keywords and phrase that you post. Flagging certain things for humans to further investigate. If you ever get the message that your page cant be opened do to construction its because these super computers are fishing threw your profile looking for key words and phrases exp (white power, Nazi, bomb, gun, president) any one of these words starts another search and then branches out to your friends and their profiles are searched one after another. and I think its funny how most of you are only worried about face book when sites like this very site were you share your passionate views on the world is more likely to be run by the government then face book