The Real Privacy Scandal On Social Networks: The Feds Are Spying On Facebook

[sharon sanders]

The Real Privacy Scandal On Social Networks: The Feds Are Spying On Their “Friends”

Sonia Arrison
20 hours ago

snip


U.S. federal agents have been urged to “friend” people in order to spy on them.


The feds operate such social sting operations aided by the fact that there are very few individuals that actually know every single person in their “friend” list on Facebook.



snip


In a memo obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) discovered that the Feds see Facebook as a psychological crutch for the needy. Here’s a direct quote from a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) memo: “Narcissistic tendencies in many people fuels a need to have a large group of “friends” link to their pages and many of these people accept cyber-friends that they don’t even know.” And it gets worse.

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more...

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1GlEk7/clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/24/feds-see-facebook-as-a-psychological-crutch-for-the-needy//r:t

[sharon sanders]

Re: The Real Privacy Scandal On Social Networks: The Feds Are Spying On Facebook

Also please see:

Essay - The Militarization of the Internet

Be Careful What You Text Message - It is Considered Evidence in Court - USA

Harvard Berkman Center - 2010 Circumvention Tool Usage Report

In China, more calls for media freedom?

New Indonesia Law Requires Approval by the Minister of Communication for each Internet Provider

Electronic Frontier Foundation - Protecting Our Rights to Express Ourselves on the Internet

[sharon sanders]

Re: The Real Privacy Scandal On Social Networks: The Feds Are Spying On Facebook

The Real Privacy Scandal On Social Networks: The Feds Are Spying On Their “Friends”

Sonia Arrison
20 hours ago

snip


U.S. federal agents have been urged to “friend” people in order to spy on them.


The feds operate such social sting operations aided by the fact that there are very few individuals that actually know every single person in their “friend” list on Facebook.



snip


In a memo obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) discovered that the Feds see Facebook as a psychological crutch for the needy. Here’s a direct quote from a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) memo: “Narcissistic tendencies in many people fuels a need to have a large group of “friends” link to their pages and many of these people accept cyber-friends that they don’t even know.” And it gets worse.

snip


more...


http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1GlEk7...the-needy//r:t

Applying for Citizenship? U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Wants to Be Your “Friend”

Deeplink by Jennifer Lynch
EFF recently received new documents as a result of our FOIA lawsuit on social network surveillance, filed with the help of UC Berkeley’s Samuelson Clinic, that reveal two ways the government has been tracking people online: surveillance of social networks to investigate citizenship petitions and the Department of Homeland Security’s use of a “Social Networking Monitoring Center” to collect and analyze online public communication during President Obama’s inauguration. This is the first of two posts describing these documents and some of their implications. (Read part one.)
Of the two disclosures, the citizenship verification initiative is perhaps the most disconcerting, both for its assumptions about people who use social networking sites and for its potentially deceptive and unethical approach to collecting information. Specifically, the disclosure contains a May 2008 memo by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) entitled Social Networking Sites and Their Importance to FDNS [Office of Fraud Detection and National Security] <small>[PDF]</small> which states:

Narcissistic tendencies in many people fuels a need to have a large group of “friends” link to their pages and many of these people accept cyber-friends that they don’t even know. This provides an excellent vantage point for FDNS to observe the daily life of beneficiaries and petitioners who are suspected of fraudulent activities.
This social networking gives FDNS an opportunity to reveal fraud by browsing these sites to see if petitioners and beneficiaries are in a valid relationship or are attempting to deceive [United States Citizen and Immigration Services] about their relationship. Once a user posts online, they create a public record and timeline of their activities. In essence, using MySpace and other like sites is akin to doing an unannounced cyber “site-visit” on a [sic] petitioners and beneficiaries.


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http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/10...itizenship-and