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@hotmail.com ------------------------------ Message: 13 Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:21:28 +0000 (UTC) From: Alexis Turner <subbies@redheadedstepchild.org> Subject: Re: [Air-L] and now for *the dark side* of facebook To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0802201409230.22375@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@halavais.net> ::Reply-To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org ::To: air-l@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@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 :: :: ::-- ::// ::// This email is ::// [X] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. ::// [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. ::// ::// Alexander C. Halavais ::// Social Architect ::// http://alex.halavais.net ::// ::_______________________________________________ ::The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list ::is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org ::Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org :: ::Join the Association of Internet Researchers: ::http://www.aoir.org/ :: + -------- redheadedstepchild.org ------- +