Showing posts with label Fake Book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fake Book. Show all posts
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Facebook Founder Calls Users "Dumb F**ks"
Loveable Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg called his first few thousand users "dumb fucks" for trusting him with their data, published IM transcripts show. Facebook hasn't disputed the authenticity of the transcript.
Zuckerberg was chatting with an unnamed friend, apparently in early 2004. Business Insider, which has a series of quite juicy anecdotes about Facebook's early days, takes the credit for this one.
The exchange apparently ran like this:
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks
The founder was then 19, and he may have been joking. But humour tells you a lot. Some might say that this exchange shows Zuckerberg was not particularly aware of the trust issue in all its depth and complexity.
Facebook is currently in the spotlight for its relentlessly increasing exposure of data its users assumed was private. This is nicely illustrated in the interactive graphic you can find here or by clicking the piccie to the right.
In turn, its fall from grace has made backers of the 'social media' bubble quite nervous. Many new white collar nonjobs created since the mid-Noughties depend on the commercial value of your output, and persona;l information. (Both are invariably donated for free).
But there's a problem.
Much of the data created by Web2.0rrhea is turning out to be quite useless for advertisers - or anyone else. Marketeers are having a harder time justifying the expenditure in sifting through the Web 2.0 septic tank for the odd useful nugget of information.
Facebook's data stash is regarded as something quite special. It's authenticated against a real person, and the users tend to be over 35 and middle class - the ideal demographic for selling high value goods and services. In addition, users have so far been 'sticky' to Facebook, something quite exceptional since social networks fall out of fashion (Friends Reunited, Friendster) as quickly as they attract users.
Facebook also has something else going for it - ordinary users regard it as the natural upgrade to Hotmail. In fact, once the crap has been peeled away, there may not be much more to Facebook than the Yahoo! or Hotmail Address Book with knobs on: the contact book is nicely integrated, uploading photos to share easier, while everything else is gravy. Unlike tech-savvy users, many people remain loyal to these for years. ®
Zuckerberg was chatting with an unnamed friend, apparently in early 2004. Business Insider, which has a series of quite juicy anecdotes about Facebook's early days, takes the credit for this one.
The exchange apparently ran like this:
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks
The founder was then 19, and he may have been joking. But humour tells you a lot. Some might say that this exchange shows Zuckerberg was not particularly aware of the trust issue in all its depth and complexity.
Facebook is currently in the spotlight for its relentlessly increasing exposure of data its users assumed was private. This is nicely illustrated in the interactive graphic you can find here or by clicking the piccie to the right.
In turn, its fall from grace has made backers of the 'social media' bubble quite nervous. Many new white collar nonjobs created since the mid-Noughties depend on the commercial value of your output, and persona;l information. (Both are invariably donated for free).
But there's a problem.
Much of the data created by Web2.0rrhea is turning out to be quite useless for advertisers - or anyone else. Marketeers are having a harder time justifying the expenditure in sifting through the Web 2.0 septic tank for the odd useful nugget of information.
Facebook's data stash is regarded as something quite special. It's authenticated against a real person, and the users tend to be over 35 and middle class - the ideal demographic for selling high value goods and services. In addition, users have so far been 'sticky' to Facebook, something quite exceptional since social networks fall out of fashion (Friends Reunited, Friendster) as quickly as they attract users.
Facebook also has something else going for it - ordinary users regard it as the natural upgrade to Hotmail. In fact, once the crap has been peeled away, there may not be much more to Facebook than the Yahoo! or Hotmail Address Book with knobs on: the contact book is nicely integrated, uploading photos to share easier, while everything else is gravy. Unlike tech-savvy users, many people remain loyal to these for years. ®
Monday, March 12, 2012
Who Is Monitoring Your Comments, Tweets?
Why is there such a sudden obsession with monitoring what average Americans are saying on Facebook and Twitter? To be honest, the vast majority of what is being said on Facebook and Twitter is simply not worth reading even if you could understand it. But for the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Reserve, Facebook and Twitter represent a treasure trove of intelligence information. Tens of millions of us have compiled incredibly detailed dossiers on ourselves and have put them out there for the entire world to see. Since the information is public, the various alphabet agencies of the federal government see no problem with scooping up all of that information and using it for their own purposes. Many potential employers have also discovered that Facebook and Twitter can tell them an awful lot about potential employees. Social media creates a permanent record that reflects who you are and what you believe, and many Americans are finding out that all of this information can come back and haunt them in a big way. In the world in which we now live, privacy is becoming a thing of the past, and we all need to be mindful of the things that we are exposing to the public.
Sadly, most Americans have absolutely no idea who is monitoring them on Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites these days. The following are just a few examples....
Potential Employers
If you apply for a job at a big company, there is a very high probability that the company will want to check out what you have been doing on Facebook and Twitter.
According to one recent survey, approximately 90 percent of all human resources professionals check out the social media accounts of potential employees.
If you are applying for a job at a small business, there is probably much less of a chance that your social media accounts will be checked, but the reality is that all of us need to understand how the world is changing.
Some employers, colleges and government agencies are even taking things a step further. Now some of them are actually demanding to be allowed in to the Facebook accounts of applicants. The following is from a recent Daily Mail article....
Rather than trying to get around the pesky password protections of Facebook and email accounts, certain government agencies and colleges are cutting straight to the source.
Some extremely inquisitive employers are asking candidates to hand over them their email and Facebook login information when they apply for a job.
Others strongly request that the candidate opens their pages in front of them and allow their would-be bosses to scroll through their private information during the interview.
How would you feel if someone forced you to hand over the passwords to your social media accounts? At some U.S. colleges, this is actually happening. As MSNBC recently described, some college sports teams are actually requiring coaches to continually monitor, and have access to, all social media accounts of team members....
A recent revision in the handbook at the University of North Carolina is typical:
"Each team must identify at least one coach or administrator who is responsible for having access to and regularly monitoring the content of team members’ social networking sites and postings,” it reads. "The athletics department also reserves the right to have other staff members monitor athletes’ posts."
This is beyond creepy, but this is the world in which we live.
The FBI
The FBI has also decided that it needs to continuously monitor Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites. The following is from an article posted on zdnet.com....
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking to develop a Web app that can continuously monitor social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, as well as various news feeds. The organization’s goal is to improve its real-time intelligence when it comes to current and emerging security threats.
The CIA
The CIA is a long way ahead of the FBI in monitoring social media. If you are an "activist" on the Internet, the CIA probably knows you very well. The following is from a recent USA Today article....
In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets – up to 5 million a day.
At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the "vengeful librarians" also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms – anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.
The Department Of Homeland Security
Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Caryn Wagner made headlines all over the world a while back when she announced that the Department of Homeland Security would be “gleaning information from sites such as Twitter and Facebook for law enforcement purposes.”
So exactly what does that mean?
Well, apparently the Department of Homeland Security is actually setting up fake accounts and using them to monitor social media networks for information. The following is from a recent Daily Mail article....
The Department of Homeland Security makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the networks for 'sensitive' words – and tracking people who use them.
That same article detailed what some of those "sensitive words" are a few paragraphs later....
The DHS outlined plans to scans blogs, Twitter and Facebook for words such as 'illegal immigrant', 'outbreak', 'drill', 'strain', 'virus', 'recovery', 'deaths', 'collapse', 'human to animal' and 'trojan', according to an 'impact asssessment' document filed by the agency.
It is interesting that the Department of Homeland Security considers "collapse" to be such an important keyword.
Does that mean that every time "The Economic Collapse Blog" is mentioned on Facebook or Twitter the Department of Homeland Security is alerted?
That is a sobering thought.
The U.S. Air Force
It turns out that the U.S. Air Force also wants to do more to monitor social media. The following is from a recent article by Madison Ruppert....
Dr. Mark Maybury, the United States Air Force Chief Scientist, is stepping outside of the typical areas in which an Air Force Chief Scientist operates and into the digital realm.
Maybury seeks to develop something he has dubbed “Social Radar” which would monitor information coming from just about every source imaginable: television, all Internet communications, radio, official reports, and more, in order to look into the hearts and minds of target populations and perhaps even predict future events.
The Federal Reserve
According to CNBC, the Federal Reserve "is planning on monitoring what you say about it on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook".
Aren't they supposed to be "above politics"?
So why is the Fed so concerned about what we are all saying about it?
Why is there a need to perform "sentiment analysis" on what is being said about the Federal Reserve on "Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums and YouTube"?
Are they going to change their policies based on public opinion.
That seems highly unlikely.
Considering the fact that the Fed is setting up a system that would identify "key bloggers" and monitor "billions of conversations" on the Internet, it seems more likely that they are primarily interested in identifying critics of the Federal Reserve.
So once they have that information, what do they plan to do with it?
In the end, a lot of people are going to be scared away from Facebook and Twitter by all of this.
But the truth is that Facebook and Twitter can also be incredibly powerful tools for spreading the truth.
In the old days, it was nearly impossible for an average American to communicate to a mass audience.
Today, someone sitting alone in their own home can put something on the Internet that could potentially be seen by tens of millions of people.
The Internet has empowered average Americans unlike almost anything else that we have seen.
That is why the establishment feels so threatened by it.
We now have the power to directly talk with one another instead of going through establishment-controlled channels.
So let them see what we are talking about if they want to.
Perhaps some of them will wake up too.
If they want to find my Twitter account, they can find it right here.
When you have the truth on your side, you don't need to be ashamed. I am going to keep waking people up no matter how many people want to watch me.
America has become a crazy control freak nation where the control freaks that run things are obsessed with monitoring almost everything that the rest of us are doing.
But hopefully if enough of us stand up and speak loudly enough, a cultural shift back toward liberty and freedom will happen.
America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.
So keep preaching the message of liberty and freedom.
Perhaps those stalking us on Facebook and Twitter will get the message if we keep repeating it often enough.
Sadly, most Americans have absolutely no idea who is monitoring them on Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites these days. The following are just a few examples....
Potential Employers
If you apply for a job at a big company, there is a very high probability that the company will want to check out what you have been doing on Facebook and Twitter.
According to one recent survey, approximately 90 percent of all human resources professionals check out the social media accounts of potential employees.
If you are applying for a job at a small business, there is probably much less of a chance that your social media accounts will be checked, but the reality is that all of us need to understand how the world is changing.
Some employers, colleges and government agencies are even taking things a step further. Now some of them are actually demanding to be allowed in to the Facebook accounts of applicants. The following is from a recent Daily Mail article....
Rather than trying to get around the pesky password protections of Facebook and email accounts, certain government agencies and colleges are cutting straight to the source.
Some extremely inquisitive employers are asking candidates to hand over them their email and Facebook login information when they apply for a job.
Others strongly request that the candidate opens their pages in front of them and allow their would-be bosses to scroll through their private information during the interview.
How would you feel if someone forced you to hand over the passwords to your social media accounts? At some U.S. colleges, this is actually happening. As MSNBC recently described, some college sports teams are actually requiring coaches to continually monitor, and have access to, all social media accounts of team members....
A recent revision in the handbook at the University of North Carolina is typical:
"Each team must identify at least one coach or administrator who is responsible for having access to and regularly monitoring the content of team members’ social networking sites and postings,” it reads. "The athletics department also reserves the right to have other staff members monitor athletes’ posts."
This is beyond creepy, but this is the world in which we live.
The FBI
The FBI has also decided that it needs to continuously monitor Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites. The following is from an article posted on zdnet.com....
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking to develop a Web app that can continuously monitor social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, as well as various news feeds. The organization’s goal is to improve its real-time intelligence when it comes to current and emerging security threats.
The CIA
The CIA is a long way ahead of the FBI in monitoring social media. If you are an "activist" on the Internet, the CIA probably knows you very well. The following is from a recent USA Today article....
In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets – up to 5 million a day.
At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the "vengeful librarians" also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms – anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.
The Department Of Homeland Security
Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Caryn Wagner made headlines all over the world a while back when she announced that the Department of Homeland Security would be “gleaning information from sites such as Twitter and Facebook for law enforcement purposes.”
So exactly what does that mean?
Well, apparently the Department of Homeland Security is actually setting up fake accounts and using them to monitor social media networks for information. The following is from a recent Daily Mail article....
The Department of Homeland Security makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the networks for 'sensitive' words – and tracking people who use them.
That same article detailed what some of those "sensitive words" are a few paragraphs later....
The DHS outlined plans to scans blogs, Twitter and Facebook for words such as 'illegal immigrant', 'outbreak', 'drill', 'strain', 'virus', 'recovery', 'deaths', 'collapse', 'human to animal' and 'trojan', according to an 'impact asssessment' document filed by the agency.
It is interesting that the Department of Homeland Security considers "collapse" to be such an important keyword.
Does that mean that every time "The Economic Collapse Blog" is mentioned on Facebook or Twitter the Department of Homeland Security is alerted?
That is a sobering thought.
The U.S. Air Force
It turns out that the U.S. Air Force also wants to do more to monitor social media. The following is from a recent article by Madison Ruppert....
Dr. Mark Maybury, the United States Air Force Chief Scientist, is stepping outside of the typical areas in which an Air Force Chief Scientist operates and into the digital realm.
Maybury seeks to develop something he has dubbed “Social Radar” which would monitor information coming from just about every source imaginable: television, all Internet communications, radio, official reports, and more, in order to look into the hearts and minds of target populations and perhaps even predict future events.
The Federal Reserve
According to CNBC, the Federal Reserve "is planning on monitoring what you say about it on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook".
Aren't they supposed to be "above politics"?
So why is the Fed so concerned about what we are all saying about it?
Why is there a need to perform "sentiment analysis" on what is being said about the Federal Reserve on "Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums and YouTube"?
Are they going to change their policies based on public opinion.
That seems highly unlikely.
Considering the fact that the Fed is setting up a system that would identify "key bloggers" and monitor "billions of conversations" on the Internet, it seems more likely that they are primarily interested in identifying critics of the Federal Reserve.
So once they have that information, what do they plan to do with it?
In the end, a lot of people are going to be scared away from Facebook and Twitter by all of this.
But the truth is that Facebook and Twitter can also be incredibly powerful tools for spreading the truth.
In the old days, it was nearly impossible for an average American to communicate to a mass audience.
Today, someone sitting alone in their own home can put something on the Internet that could potentially be seen by tens of millions of people.
The Internet has empowered average Americans unlike almost anything else that we have seen.
That is why the establishment feels so threatened by it.
We now have the power to directly talk with one another instead of going through establishment-controlled channels.
So let them see what we are talking about if they want to.
Perhaps some of them will wake up too.
If they want to find my Twitter account, they can find it right here.
When you have the truth on your side, you don't need to be ashamed. I am going to keep waking people up no matter how many people want to watch me.
America has become a crazy control freak nation where the control freaks that run things are obsessed with monitoring almost everything that the rest of us are doing.
But hopefully if enough of us stand up and speak loudly enough, a cultural shift back toward liberty and freedom will happen.
America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.
So keep preaching the message of liberty and freedom.
Perhaps those stalking us on Facebook and Twitter will get the message if we keep repeating it often enough.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Facebook Is World's Most Appalling Spy Machine
A report published by the London Sunday Times has revealed that Facebook has been accessing and reading the personal text messages of users of their social networking app.
Unfortunately the report itself is locked behind a pay wall, but the report has been partially summarized by Fox News (let’s just hope it’s more accurate than most of their reporting).
Facebook has reportedly even admitted reading the text messages, claiming that they were accessing data without the knowledge of users as part of a trial in an effort to launch their own messaging service.'
Unfortunately the report itself is locked behind a pay wall, but the report has been partially summarized by Fox News (let’s just hope it’s more accurate than most of their reporting).
Facebook has reportedly even admitted reading the text messages, claiming that they were accessing data without the knowledge of users as part of a trial in an effort to launch their own messaging service.'
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
DHS Pays $11.4 Million To General Dynamics To Monitor Social Meida
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been paying a defense contractor $11.4 million to monitor social media websites and other Internet communications to find criticisms of the department’s policies and actions.
A government watchdog organization, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), obtained hundreds of documents from DHS through the Freedom of Information Act and found details of the arrangement with General Dynamics. The company was contracted to monitor the Web for “reports that reflect adversely on DHS,” including sub-agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In testimony submitted to the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, Ginger McCall, director of EPIC’s Open Government Project, stated that “the agency is monitoring constantly, under very broad search terms, and is not limiting that monitoring to events or activities related to natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or manmade disasters….The DHS has no legal authority to engage in this monitoring.”
McCall added: “This has a profound effect on free speech online if you feel like a government law enforcement agency—particularly the Department of Homeland Security, which is supposed to look for terrorists—is monitoring your criticism, your dissent, of the government.”
A government watchdog organization, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), obtained hundreds of documents from DHS through the Freedom of Information Act and found details of the arrangement with General Dynamics. The company was contracted to monitor the Web for “reports that reflect adversely on DHS,” including sub-agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In testimony submitted to the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, Ginger McCall, director of EPIC’s Open Government Project, stated that “the agency is monitoring constantly, under very broad search terms, and is not limiting that monitoring to events or activities related to natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or manmade disasters….The DHS has no legal authority to engage in this monitoring.”
McCall added: “This has a profound effect on free speech online if you feel like a government law enforcement agency—particularly the Department of Homeland Security, which is supposed to look for terrorists—is monitoring your criticism, your dissent, of the government.”
Friday, January 27, 2012
Facebook Timeline MANDATORY To Reveal All Of Your Past
Facebook's Timeline - a new look for people's Profile pages which exposes their entire history on the site - will become mandatory for all users.
The 'new look' has been voluntary up until now.
From now, users will simply be notified that they are being 'updated' via an announcement at the top of their home page, which users click on to activate Timeline.
As with voluntary switches to Timeline, those who are 'updated' will have just seven days to select which photos, posts and life events they want to advertise to the world.
Via the official Facebook blog, the site announced, 'Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story.'
'Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now.
'This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it.'
Timeline has been criticised for showing off pictures and posts that people might have wanted to forget.
The new look also pairs with 'timeline apps', such as Spotify, which post every time people listen to a song, or eat a recipe or visit somewhere.
'You can learn more about these new features by taking the quick tour available at the top of your timeline,' says Facebook.
'If you want to get timeline now, go to the Introducing Timeline page and click 'Get Timeline.'Or you can wait until you see an announcement at the top of your home page.'
The 'new look' has been voluntary up until now.
From now, users will simply be notified that they are being 'updated' via an announcement at the top of their home page, which users click on to activate Timeline.
As with voluntary switches to Timeline, those who are 'updated' will have just seven days to select which photos, posts and life events they want to advertise to the world.
Via the official Facebook blog, the site announced, 'Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story.'
'Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now.
'This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it.'
Timeline has been criticised for showing off pictures and posts that people might have wanted to forget.
The new look also pairs with 'timeline apps', such as Spotify, which post every time people listen to a song, or eat a recipe or visit somewhere.
'You can learn more about these new features by taking the quick tour available at the top of your timeline,' says Facebook.
'If you want to get timeline now, go to the Introducing Timeline page and click 'Get Timeline.'Or you can wait until you see an announcement at the top of your home page.'
Monday, December 26, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
NYPD Cops Post Hateful, Racially Derogatory Remarks On Facebook
Several New York police officers have been accused of making derogatory and racially-charged comments about the city's West African Day parade on a public Facebook group.
The officers, who posted using their real names, made comments such as 'drop a bomb and wipe them all out.' Others called parade goers 'savages,' 'animals' and 'filth.'
The remarks were made on a Facebook group called 'No More West Indian Day Detail,' which was created for 'N.Y.P.D. officers who are threatened by superiors and forced to be victims themselves by the violence of the West Indian Day massacre.'
The officers, who posted using their real names, made comments such as 'drop a bomb and wipe them all out.' Others called parade goers 'savages,' 'animals' and 'filth.'
The remarks were made on a Facebook group called 'No More West Indian Day Detail,' which was created for 'N.Y.P.D. officers who are threatened by superiors and forced to be victims themselves by the violence of the West Indian Day massacre.'
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
US Justice Dept Wants To Criminalize Uploading You Tube Videos
'The Department of Justice is attempting to criminalize uploading videos that break You Tube’s terms of service, along with any other online action that is deemed to contravene a website’s usage policy, in a shocking expansion of cybersecurity laws deemed draconian by critics.
“In a statement obtained by CNET that’s scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, the Justice Department argues that it must be able to prosecute violations of Web sites’ often-ignored, always-unintelligible “terms of service” policies,” writes Declan McCullagh.
Such violations would include creating a fake Facebook profile, lying about your weight on dating websites, or providing any other item of false information that violates a website’s TOS agreement.'
NOTE: This is for UPLOADING info, not downloading, although they already have their knickers in a knot about that too. Is there anyone on the planet who doesn't know that Fake Book is connected to the "good guys"
“In a statement obtained by CNET that’s scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, the Justice Department argues that it must be able to prosecute violations of Web sites’ often-ignored, always-unintelligible “terms of service” policies,” writes Declan McCullagh.
Such violations would include creating a fake Facebook profile, lying about your weight on dating websites, or providing any other item of false information that violates a website’s TOS agreement.'
NOTE: This is for UPLOADING info, not downloading, although they already have their knickers in a knot about that too. Is there anyone on the planet who doesn't know that Fake Book is connected to the "good guys"
Monday, November 14, 2011
Austrian Law Student Tackles Fakebook
Austrian law student Max Schrems may be just one of about 800 million Facebook users, but that hasn't stopped him tackling the US giant behind the social networking website over its privacy policy.
The 24-year-old wasn't sure what to expect when he requested Facebook provide him with a record of the personal data it holds on him, but he certainly wasn't ready for the 1,222 pages of information he received.
This included photos, messages and postings on his Facebook page dating back years, some of which he thought he had deleted, the times he had clicked "like" on an item, "pokes" of fellow users, and reams of other information.
"When you delete something from Facebook, all you are doing is hiding it from yourself," Schrems told AFP in his home city of Vienna.
Shocked, Schrems decided to act. Hitting a dead end in Austria, he took his complaints in August to the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) in Ireland, where Facebook has its European headquarters.
Believing that Facebook was contravening European Union law, and had more data on him that it is not releasing, Schrems has filed 22 complaints with the DPC, details of which can be found on his website: http://www.europe-v-facebook.org/.
"It's a shock of civilisations. Americans don't understand the concept of data protection. For them, the person with the rights is the one with the data. In continental Europe, we don't see things like that," Schrems said.
"If a company wants to operate in a country it has to abide by the rules."
The 24-year-old wasn't sure what to expect when he requested Facebook provide him with a record of the personal data it holds on him, but he certainly wasn't ready for the 1,222 pages of information he received.
This included photos, messages and postings on his Facebook page dating back years, some of which he thought he had deleted, the times he had clicked "like" on an item, "pokes" of fellow users, and reams of other information.
"When you delete something from Facebook, all you are doing is hiding it from yourself," Schrems told AFP in his home city of Vienna.
Shocked, Schrems decided to act. Hitting a dead end in Austria, he took his complaints in August to the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) in Ireland, where Facebook has its European headquarters.
Believing that Facebook was contravening European Union law, and had more data on him that it is not releasing, Schrems has filed 22 complaints with the DPC, details of which can be found on his website: http://www.europe-v-facebook.org/.
"It's a shock of civilisations. Americans don't understand the concept of data protection. For them, the person with the rights is the one with the data. In continental Europe, we don't see things like that," Schrems said.
"If a company wants to operate in a country it has to abide by the rules."
Thursday, November 3, 2011
14 Ways The US Gov Is Watching YOU
Sadly, most people living in the United States and in Europe do not realize what is happening. Most of them think that everything is just fine. The "Big Brother control grid" that is being constructed all over the western world squeezes all of us just a little bit tighter every single day, and most people don't even feel it.
But when you step back and take a look at the big picture, it truly is horrifying.
The following are 14 new ways that the government is watching you.
America is becoming a much different place.
Our privacy is being eroded in thousands of different ways.
National governments and big corporations know far more about you than you probably ever would imagine.
Yes, there will always be "security threats", but we should not have to throw away any of our rights in order to be "safe".
America is supposed to be about liberty and freedom.
America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.
If given the choice between living in "1984" and living in "1776", I know what my choice would be.
I would choose 1776.
I would choose liberty and freedom even if it meant that the world around me was a little bit less "safe".
What about you?
What would you choose?
But when you step back and take a look at the big picture, it truly is horrifying.
The following are 14 new ways that the government is watching you.
America is becoming a much different place.
Our privacy is being eroded in thousands of different ways.
National governments and big corporations know far more about you than you probably ever would imagine.
Yes, there will always be "security threats", but we should not have to throw away any of our rights in order to be "safe".
America is supposed to be about liberty and freedom.
America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.
If given the choice between living in "1984" and living in "1776", I know what my choice would be.
I would choose 1776.
I would choose liberty and freedom even if it meant that the world around me was a little bit less "safe".
What about you?
What would you choose?
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
DHS To Implement More Monitoring Of Social Networks
The wave of civil unrest that has swept the globe over the past year has prompted the Department of Homeland Security to step up its monitoring of Twitter and other social networks in a bid to pre-empt any sign of social dislocation within the United States.
Twitter User“Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Caryn Wagner said the use of such technology in uprisings that started in December in Tunisia shocked some officials into attention and prompted questions of whether the U.S. needs to do a better job of monitoring domestic social networking activity,” reports the Associated Press.
Wagner announced that the federal agency would implement new guidelines that would focus on “gleaning information from sites such as Twitter and Facebook for law enforcement purposes.”
Twitter User“Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Caryn Wagner said the use of such technology in uprisings that started in December in Tunisia shocked some officials into attention and prompted questions of whether the U.S. needs to do a better job of monitoring domestic social networking activity,” reports the Associated Press.
Wagner announced that the federal agency would implement new guidelines that would focus on “gleaning information from sites such as Twitter and Facebook for law enforcement purposes.”
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Faking Facebook Name A Felony>
Imagine that President Obama could order the arrest of anyone who broke a promise on the Internet. So you could be jailed for lying about your age or weight on an Internet dating site. Or you could be sent to federal prison if your boss told you to work but you used the company's computer to check sports scores online. Imagine that Eric Holder's Justice Department urged Congress to raise penalties for violations, making them felonies allowing three years in jail for each broken promise. Fanciful, right?
Think again. Congress is now poised to grant the Obama administration's wishes in the name of "cybersecurity."
The little-known law at issue is called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It was enacted in 1986 to punish computer hacking. But Congress has broadened the law every few years, and today it extends far beyond hacking. The law now criminalizes computer use that "exceeds authorized access" to any computer. Today that violation is a misdemeanor, but the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to meet this morning to vote on making it a felony.
The problem is that a lot of routine computer use can exceed "authorized access." Courts are still struggling to interpret this language. But the Justice Department believes that it applies incredibly broadly to include "terms of use" violations and breaches of workplace computer-use policies.
Think again. Congress is now poised to grant the Obama administration's wishes in the name of "cybersecurity."
The little-known law at issue is called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It was enacted in 1986 to punish computer hacking. But Congress has broadened the law every few years, and today it extends far beyond hacking. The law now criminalizes computer use that "exceeds authorized access" to any computer. Today that violation is a misdemeanor, but the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to meet this morning to vote on making it a felony.
The problem is that a lot of routine computer use can exceed "authorized access." Courts are still struggling to interpret this language. But the Justice Department believes that it applies incredibly broadly to include "terms of use" violations and breaches of workplace computer-use policies.
Friday, March 18, 2011
US Military & Social Networks
The U.S. military are developing software to spread pro-U.S. propaganda via fake accounts on popular social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, Guardian wrote.
U.S. Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, awarded a contract to develop an "online persona management service," allowing one serviceperson to control and manage up to 10 fake identities.
The fake personas, known as "sock puppets," would have a convincing background, history and other details, and will influence online conversations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries."
"The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the U.S.," Guardian quoted Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks as saying.
U.S. Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, awarded a contract to develop an "online persona management service," allowing one serviceperson to control and manage up to 10 fake identities.
The fake personas, known as "sock puppets," would have a convincing background, history and other details, and will influence online conversations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries."
"The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the U.S.," Guardian quoted Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks as saying.
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