FBI Facebook agents
p2pnet view Freedom | P2P:- It’s bad enough that you can’t go anywhere online without Google, Yahoo, MySpace or one of the other companies trying to get their hands on your personal and private data so they can use it for stuff such as behavioural targeting.
And of course, if they have the same kind of policies as Microsoft, they’ll hand it over to more or less whoever asks for it, if (im)properly approached.
With that in the wings, the us Justice Department has released Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites“, says the EFF’s Deep Links.
Slides prepared by two lawyers from the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section “detail several social media companies’ data retention practices and responses to law enforcement requests”, says the post.
The presentation notes Facebook was “often cooperative with emergency requests” while “complaining about Twitter’s short data retention policies and refusal to preserve data without legal process”, says Deep links, noting:
“The presentation also touches on use of social media for undercover operations.”
Undercover operations? Yup. Those people you’ve been telling all your deepest, darkest hopes and secrets to might be US government agents.
“The records, obtained from the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Justice Criminal Division, are the first in a series of documents that will be released through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case that EFF filed with the help of the UC Berkeley Samuelson Clinic“, it says, promising:
“Over the next few months, EFF will be getting more documents from several law enforcement and intelligence agencies concerning their use of social networking sites for investigative purposes.”
But Hey! If you’re worried about companies such as Google getting your personal data, “you must be doing something you shouldn’t be doing“, says Google boss Eric Schmidt.
“If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities,” he told CNBC, according to The Register.
Definitely stay tuned.
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
(im)properly approached – Cryptome vs Microsoft: Cryptome wins!, February 27, 2010
Deep Links – EFF Posts Documents Detailing Law Enforcement Collection of Data From Social Media Sites, March 16, 2010
shouldn’t be doing – Only wrong-doers worry about online privacy, December 8, 2009
The Register – Google chief: Only miscreants worry about net privacy, December 7, 2009
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Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Click here to learn what technologies might help you bypass censorship in your area.
March 17th, 2010 at 7:17 am
Thankfully I steer clear of “exhibitionist” style social media, and I urge you all to do the same, whats starts as a bit of fun turns into a “keep up with the joneses” competition or worse a place of abuse from those who have taken a dislike to you, it really is a step too far for most sensible folks.
March 17th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
and for an extended list of spying check http://cryptome.org