What is Digg?98 Comments
- JamesTyler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9It makes sense to me. If I was in the CIA, and wanted to keep a database of college students (in case I needed the information for later use), would there be any better means of gathering information? College students are voluntarily offering information (i.e. where they live, their phone numbers, e-mail address, birthdays, the classes they're in, and other information). With all the information that facebook encourages you to post, I'm surprised there isn't a place to post your social security number and valid credit cards.
I use to use facebook, and it's crazy how much information people give on that thing. Students usually think it's "safe" because it's only accessible to other college students. - Osirisofdoom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Definitly a little freaky in my book. I see no reason to plaster your personal info all over the web in the first place.
- 4815162342, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7hrmm, can't delete your account, you can only "deactivate it." wonder why...
- kidhero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5should read up on facebook privacy and the TOS, conspiracy aside, they have a really ***** TOS.
- imjustabill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The line that disturbs me most: "Thefacebook also collects information about you from other sources, such as newspapers and instant messaging services. This information is gathered regardless of your use of the Web Site.”
- jakin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Does this mean I should remove "Terrorism" from my list of interests?
- Lumiras, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4While I think that people are spying on your Facebook profiles, those people are more than likely not the CIA or the FBI (first off, CIA deals mostly in international affairs)
Two groups, on the other hand, probably are watching every move you make on Facebook: Media companies and local law enforcement. I'll break down the two separately
Spy #1: Media
This one should be pretty obvious. Putting down all your interests on facebook allows media companies to build personality profiles about the very lucrative college age demographic (while the phrase "poor college student" is still pretty commonplace, they sure do find cash to buy a lot of stuff). Using the information they gather on facebook, media outlets can craft and tailor each new band, TV show, or movie they introduce to this crowd. They used to pay people for this kind of info, now we're giving it away, voluntarily.
Spy #2: Local Law Enforcement
Here's one that I'm really surprised more people don't notice, because it's pretty obvious that facebook can be a goldmine for local law enforcement. Recently, Facebook added a "Parties" section to the site, allowing users to announce to the whole damn world that a massive party was going on. The information on the party includes the address, the time, and a partial list of people who will be attending. The degree of partying going on at the party is often described in detail. A lot of times, numerous under aged students RSVP for these parties, allowing police to see when they can break up a party and put a few more notches on their arrest record. People might as well prepare a formal statement to the police saying:
"I'm having a huge party on 142 Walnut on Saturday at 10 pm. There will be a ton of under aged drinking and drug use. Feel free to come by to arrest us at your leisure"
So, to conclude, is the CIA spying on your Facebook habits? No, they have much more important things, like, oh, terrorism to think about. But, are people spying on you nonetheless? of course! - clayasaurus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4http://www.infowars.com/articles/bb/facebook_bb_with_a_smile.htm
- mikeyeah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I don't know what bothers me more, the fact that civil liberties in this country continue to be put in jeopardy or the fact that many people just don't seem to care about it.
- szekany, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4This reminds me of an episode of CSI Miami or NY or something like that a few weeks back where the CSI's were looking for a suspect who was also a college student. They were working off a description from a bystander and "fed it into the computer", presumably for facial recognition. A character asked out loud exactly what I was thinking: "what are you using for a database?" The reply was "Facebook". The rest of the episode was crap, but I thought the screenwriters were quite clever for thinking that one up. A simple, yet brilliant use of available resources.
Would the CIA be using it too? Wouldn't surprise me. - tarun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3weird i was surfing facebook.right.as.we.speak.
- jasqwerty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@ crimsonblur
Yes it does, plenty that the government couldn't get. Most of the stuff posted there is in the databases of private entities, your brain, or the brains of your friends, and any photographs that might have been taken at the time. Trust me, FaceBook, if mined properly, could produce the most comprehensive portrait of up and coming leaders of tomorrow ever imaginable. If you don't see this, you just haven't read enough FaceBook entries. - eigh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3dude, thats ***** crazy.
glad to see it though. and if you think its crackpot, read what it says about their privacy policy. - burnboom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Being a student at one of the nation's most prominent institutions involved in data mining, I assure you that through the use of probabilistic models a lot more than just the actual facts you state can be extracted from such a vast information source. New techniques are developed all the time, sometimes at disturbingly high rates. No idea if it's currently being used, just saying the possibilities exist, and that the technologies (applicable to whatever records of your activities that have been made over time) will keep getting more and more advanced. Do what you will, just mind your future career while you're doing it (esp. all you democrats ;))
- denied, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Quick! Somebody add this vital new info to Facebook's wikipedia entry!!!
- Dan_2gngCrew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2oh, another thing, what information is google collecting when you search. I noticed just a little while back, that even when I am on there main page, I am logged into my google account. I still use it everyday and don't take too much extra care with my searching, but, still is something to think about.
- mangopork, on 12/14/2007, -0/+1Right, so because YOU have a boring profile, we can all stop being concerned and go back to sleep, ignoring the safety and privacy of millions of other students.
Don't be an idiot. - gmcsmalls, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2truce...mytruehero
- crapiolio, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Haha, I feel sorry for my friends who registered. I never use this crap!
- 4815162342, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2just in case anybody needed another reason to delete their facebook.
dugg. - Dan_2gngCrew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1similar as well to myspace.com's policies. and to add another level to the "conspiracy" there, they were recently aquired by media giant News Corporation which runs several other seedy outfits as well.
*Note* no sarcasm meant by the quotes on conspiracy. - TSSaloic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wheres HP's Facebook.
- tracker1312, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you have a driver's license, a job, a credit card or have ever filled out a form with where you live and what your phone number is, somebody has it on file and law enforcement and the government has access to it. So, facebook is not anything to worry about any more than worrying about what you put on a job application. Unless you want to move to the middle of the Mojave desert and live like a hermit, you'll just have to deal with the government having access to who you are and where you are. And if you aren't breaking laws, for now, you have nothing to worry about.
- ryanmetcalf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"TheFaceBook.com is nothing more than COINTELPRO with slick packaging. It is part of a new breed of spy networks designed to profile students for the next phase of martial law. The Bush regime is a megalomaniacal cabal of mass murderers who want to crush all internal dissent, and like all dictatorial regimes, the first place they will look is students."
Seriously, can you even give any article as "wack" as this any credit? - mytruehero, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Does the CIA care that I like gin and Bob Dylan?
- snakepimp, on 12/30/2007, -0/+1Wow, you live in a very sheltered mind-space if this is WAY OUT THERE for you. You're apparently not very 'up' on the current state of domestic espionage, are you?
- Dan_2gngCrew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@wubbie
the privacy statement on the site that is of concern, "facebook.com", specifically states government agencies may have access to the information. the closest digg comes to that is to say that it would comply with law enforcement requests for information. this could be taken a few different ways and you could surely say that law enforcement also encompasses government. However, the facebook privacy policy strictly names government. I am under the impression from the digg privacy policy that they would only offer such private information to applicable law enforcement agencies in appropriate jurisdictions where a crime is believed to be committed. Further this information would only be given if relevant to any allegations of a violation of a law.
Also, this is the exact text involving information given to law enforcement:
Protection of Digg and Others:
We may release personal information when we believe in good faith that release is necessary to comply with that law; enforce or apply our conditions of use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Digg, our employees, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. - danielson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was on facebook one time and I clicked on one of my friends link and it for some reason it came up with a bunch of the php source code. One thing that kind of caught my attention was this part of it(I took a screenshot because I can't post code here.): http://www.danieljanderson.com/images/source.jpg
That's only a part of the code.... - Tweekster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1retarded.
wow ONE investor has ties to the CIA...
hey i bet that can be said about thousands of companies seeing as how the CIA has thousands of employees. - theDrizzle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2005/11/11-10-05tdc/11-10-05dnews-10.asp
this is one of the articles published about how the cops use facebook at penn state...if you go to the bottom of the page there is a search engine...type in face book and look at all the opinions on it...they're funny - slicmeister, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The newspaper and instant messaging thing is a vestige from earliest days of thefacebook. When it first started, you could see someone's most recent away message on their profile and you could see when their name had appeared in the Harvard student newspaper. I guess they just never took that section out.
And on the source code, thefacebook does actually track how many times a person's profile is viewed, sort of like how Amazon keeps track of what products you viewed or purchased. And I'm sure Amazon has links to the CIA too if you look hard enough.
Look, you'd be stupid to post pictures of yourself doing something illegal. You just shouldn't be surprised that (gasp) other people can see information that you post in the public domain. - mangopork, on 12/14/2007, -0/+1they've been dumbed down by the department of education, big media corporations, junk food, and mass alcohol consumption.
They're too stupid to know how to care or even begin to fight back.
Ronpaul2008.com, last chance to turn it all around.... - matcrawf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i have used facebook for more than a year now. my phone number, my birthday, my interests, fav movies, my friends; if it was private i wouldn't post it. who cares
- Wubbie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Dan:
None the less, the article is just generalizing information and as you just stated, Government can pass as Law Enforcement quite easily, as they are a branch of a lower authority. - darkmagus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1George Bush doesn't care about facebook.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't know how many of you are familiar with the VC community, but Accel Partners is fairly well known to invest in Internet startups. They aren't exactly a black ops outfit that just turned up that invests in datamining.
However, the Facebook actually does have a lot of information interesting for the CIA. I don't know how many of you have been interviewed by the CIA for employment, but a lot of the data on the site is very relevant for college recruits.
The CIA has litmus test for drug use. They don't care if you're reformed, the fact that you did drugs X times in your life quickly eliminates you from the candidate pool.
Another integral part of the interview process is the friend interview. They contact your friends to find out what you're like. If you drink, if you gamble, if you have any other vices. If you're susceptible to blackmail, etc. Facebook does somewhat make this easier, listing your friends and their contact information. People also often post correspondence on "the Wall" which may detail something. - mcbean, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Total insanity. So I smoke my huge joint , and click on the Digg feed to find out some crazy object is orbiting the earth ( 3 years ago mind you ) . Now the CIA wants to know if you like the white stripes, do meth , or drink finlandia vodka during college !
And the CIA really doesnt care what you did in college
"Some senior FBI managers have been deeply frustrated that they could not hire applicants who acknowledged occasional marijuana use in college, but in some cases already perform top-secret work at other government agencies, such as the CIA or State Department."
Soon the fbi might not either !
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9646619/from/RL.4/ - Comsamvimes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1He started go on some tangents that I've heard from so many other conspiracy theorists that I can't really treat this as fact.
Though if the CIA could find some information on my roommate to make him "go away" for a while, I'd be fine with that. He gets on my nerves... - spadin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This might be fake and maybe just a conspiracy theory, I wouldn't doubt. However, I'm more surprised at the fact that people see something that looks like a conspiracy theory and quickly declare it paranoia. Is there a reason that everyone is just programmed to think of ideas against the government as ludicrous?
- KayinAngel, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0yeah, it only makes it easier for the scientologists to fair game you
- tibby.dude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0They are busy preparing the draft letters ;).
- danielson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"@danielson
i think you could open up a whole new can of worms with that one, haha"
Yeah, I'm afraid to post the whole thing though because I don't know about the legal implications of posting the PHP source code... - speakfthetruth, on 09/29/2008, -0/+0The 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
- KayinAngel, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0sarcasm, that's awesome !
- spadin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's not that hard to get into facebook anyway. You can go to many university alumni organizations, sign-up for a free email and then you have access to the entire university social network. Since people are always happy to add a new friend you're network would grow in no time.
- microChasm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't know...CIA Factbook...CIA Facebook.
You read betweeen the lines... - mrman2787, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Good Looking Out.
- amphora, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The CIA has been very interested in American university students before:
http://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=cia+%22national+student+association - strlen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That is indeed, a conspiracy theory (the other variation that argued that facebook is a conspiracy talked about facebook being a conspiracy since Harvard had graduates in the CIA!; this uses the same logic).
This simply doesn't follow: Thiel has ties to conservative politics (and we should care, why? If he were a liberal with ties to Janet Reno it would be less of a threat?), Thiel funds Facebook; ergo, Facebook is a CIA conspiracy.
Lastly, if you admit to illegal activities on facebook (or another other site of the matter), you're a fool in any case -- but you're in far greater threat of being reprimanded for underage drinking / smoking marijuana (if you confess to that on facebook -- and at least many students at my own university willing to do so) by your own university than of being hauled of to Guantanamo by CIA for joining a group called ``Bush is dumb''.
If it's feds you worry about, you're in far more danger on a wider, more open network -- such as friendster or myspace (which would provide far more fodder for the conspiracy theorists, being owned by Murdoch and all). -
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