Julian Assange: Facebook Is 'Appalling Spy Machine' (w/VIDEO)

[Roland99]

Source: Huffington Post

In an interview with Russia Today (RT), Julian Assange called Facebook the "most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented."

He told RT's Laura Emmett,

Here we have the world's most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations, their communications with each other, their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to U.S. intelligence.

It's not new ground for the Wikileaks founder. In March, Assange told Cambridge University students that the Internet is "the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen."

During the Russia Today interview, Assange explained that Facebook, Google and Yahoo all provide automated interfaces for the U.S. intelligence (starts around 2:00 in the video below). "When they add their friends to Facebook," Assange said, "they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/02/julian-assange-facebook-is-spy-machine_n_856313.html

[onehandle]

1. They're as bad as Google. nt

[Sherman A1]

2. So when I

"like" the Botanical garden or a restaurant alarm bells go off?

FB certainly has it's problems but it's uses are as varied as it's users.

I may like a baseball team, get news from a history museum, get photos from the National Archives and read stories from AlterNet.

It's all in how you use it and in what you put up there.

[Roland99]

3. From the article: "When they add their friends to Facebook...they are doing free work for US intel..

it's more about the circle of friends/family...

[Mojorabbit]

40. Ihave friends around the world

because I used to play mafia wars and school of magic. The circle of friends would be pretty useless.

[Roland99]

41. ha...would make for some interesting 'investigations'

[readmoreoften]

71. You probably are of no interest. But those of us who are activists are of interest.

And that's why we suggested removing face tags from photos posted of people at protests.

[Mojorabbit]

82. Well

I was a member of code pink for a good while and fed homeless in the parks with food not bombs when it was against the law and I will turn out for a protest a good part of the time but the bulk of my activism was back in the day. I think it is a very bad idea to tag people in general.

[FiveGoodMen]

16. "To the best of your knowledge, is anyone you know a communist or sympathizer?"

Now that it's all up on line, no one will have to ask.

But I'm sure they'll still persecute ... er prosecute at will.

[Occulus]

29. That's what should disturb us all.

The era of McCarthyism in this country should have been a warning. "It" not only can happen here; to one degree, it already has. There are elements on the conservative right- many of them "religious"- who would (and, probably, already do to whatever level they can) gleefully use this information against anyone they don't like.

I'm not a member of Facebook, and haven't ever been a member of MySpace or Twitter. I'm a bit relieved by that... but not much.

[JackRiddler]

45. You should ask yourself how Facebook makes money.

All information they gather about you (and it's exponentially more than what you tell them, thanks to the cross-database magic) is for sale. Including to the government.

[Sherman A1]

47. I fully understand how it works and if they

find out my dirty secrets of reading the National Archive page or the Smithsonian's page or the USAF Museums page. I will just have to live with that.

[JackRiddler]

49. And what if they can also figure out your credit score, address, bank...

DU screen name, doctor... ? Should there be no limits, just because you believe you've nothing to hide?

[Quantess]

66. They can't get any of that through facebook, unless you give it out.

That kind of personal info would be gleaned elsewhere on the internet.
Facebook doesn't force you to you give your address or phone#.

[JackRiddler]

72. Yes, hello: They can cross-reference with other databases.

I once gave them a generic e-mail and a fake name.

How the hell did they turn an e-mail into my high school classmates? (Who were then suggested as friends.) This must mean they figured out my real name. Obviously they're very sophisticated. They can make bulk deals with Experian and such and cross reference the hell out of everything you visit and mention, or everything everyone who visits your page mentions.

[Quantess]

78. Of course. What I'm saying is that facebook isn't the only culprit.

Good points, though.

I am one of these people who manage to stay under the radar when it comes to vital info. I google myself periodically. Nobody got nothin' when you search my name. Nothing of any value, anyways.

But then, it helps to not have a credit card. I am one of these miscreants who gets by without a credit card! Look no further. :)

[blueamy66]

90. Well, my credit score sucks, I have no money in the bank

I don't care if they know my DU screen name.

There is nothing about my life that would interest anyone.

[Sherman A1]

60. a

[Hannah Bell]

50. that seems to be how most of the internet makes money.

[JackRiddler]

54. Well, yeah, but no one can match the data reach of FB and Google...

both given voluntarily!

And when they merge -- ?!

[Hannah Bell]

56. yeah, all that stuff just creeps me out. i've already kind of decided in my own mind

that if it comes to a point where there's no way to pay my bills but online or through direct deposit i'm heading for the woods.

something too weirdly orwellian about it. though rationally, it's just a slight step past what we already have. but i just don;t like it.

[KoKo]

63. Have you looked at the ads that DU Google Ads places on our posts here on this site?

That's a real clue. I'm not opposed to DU making money from Ads and Donations...but the placement for those of us who are (investigation inclined) can be an "eye-popper" if you look and read carefully.

The ads are totally picking out the theme of the poster comments on the OP and geared to target "key words." That's gotta be worth some big stuff to those who want to Data Mine..like our Government. Particularly a partisan website that is as diversified as DU is with so many Forums and so many commenters and posts.

Also since DU still has an "activist" group. It would be invaluable for our intelligence agencies to know when the next "protest event" is scheduled and who the "key players" are.

I know that...and have nothing to hide...but I think it might get worse in the coming years as to how "free" we feel posting on what "we thought" were the "peoples airways." Just saying...

[chatnoir]

4. Doesn't seem like deleting the account would help now though...

I've had my own creepy experience on FB and all my settings are pretty much set to Private/not searchable.

[ret5hd]

6. That will certainly foil the CIA!

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. Do you really think "not searchable" is not searchable for the government? nt

[chatnoir]

23. Nah, I'm not that silly, no...

But in a small nutshell, just viewing someone's public wall is obv enough to ping someone somewhere b/c it subsequently lead to my account being hacked into.

[reggie the dog]

85. what happened? i thought that by putting stuff on private it was like

using a condom.

[needledriver]

5. And not only that-

every time you "tag" someone you are training Facebook's facial recognition algorithms. Every day millions of people are improving Facebook's ability to recognize faces! Ever notice how often the list of suggested names just happens to contain the one you want out of your entire friends list? Is Facebook selling facial recognition data to companies who want to refine their own facial recognition programs?

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Doesn't matter if they do.

Casino's have pretty well perfected this technology already.

[Hestia]

8. And just think, everyone is doing relatives through Ancestory.com

Why should Agent Mike look up your relatives, you've already done it for them. I personally do not like anything on FB, have my relatives listed or DH, plus most of my friends have fake ID's, which I had thought to do that at the time, but was told NOT to set up fake account.

[Turborama]

9. We're using Facebook to share photos of my wife's developing pregnancy with friends and family...

...around the world.

What's the CIA going to do with that?

If someone's stupid enough to share activities on Facebook that's going to get them into trouble they deserve to get caught.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. What they would do with it is know who all your family and friends are.

And if one of them, just one crazy uncle or depressed teen, says the wrong thing, the Secret Service could be showing up at YOUR door to find out what your REAL connection is to that suspect.

[FiveGoodMen]

17. Exactly!

[Turborama]

18. Something I'd be worried about if I was paranoid

Which I'm not.

[RaleighNCDUer]

22. If you're not paranoid

you haven't been paying attention.

:evilgrin:

[Turborama]

39. BOO!

[Quantess]

48. Exactly. The chance of that happening is extremely remote.

The government is just not that efficient. With a deluge of mostly useless, trivial information, imagine how much time would need to be spent, sifting through it all?

[JackRiddler]

73. Good thing they don't have fast machines and 30 years of developed algorithms to sort through it all

[Quantess]

79. Yeah, and they still get reams of useless info

Which brings us back to the other point, if the technology is so efficient and thorough, isn't that *good? We can catch criminals in the act, and have proof that they were the ones who did it, and there is less reason for mistrial. False witness, etc.

*meaning, as long as we have a just and fair law enforcement system.

[JackRiddler]

87. The irony is that in your version, the chances of arbitrary wrongful enforcement are higher.

Our real difference boils down to this: There is no just and fair law enforcement system in this country. The highest proportion of the population imprisoned in the world indicates an enormous police state. The key is in the drug war, which automatically criminalizes 50 to 100 milliion people and makes them targets of choice. There are hundreds of LEAs (law enforcement agencies) and they all look to grow and justify themselves. The enhanced surveillance is mostly an opportunity to do that, a wide-cast net, but it can also be applied with extreme accuracy (whether justified or not).

[JDPriestly]

33. "They" can know who your family and friends are any time "they" want anyway..

"They" would have to want to know all these things about you. Once "they" want to know something, "they" can find it out anyway. "They" can subpoena records and ask questions. It is called an investigation. Been happening for centuries at the very least.

[RaleighNCDUer]

36. Yeah, but an investigation requires actual investigating.

This takes a few minutes sitting at a computer.

As stated above, it just a matter of us doing the investigators' work for them.

[Hannah Bell]

51. lol. sure.

[Turborama]

75. What did I say that was funny? n/t

[KoKo]

64. Think harder about this.... What could companies do with your information and when your baby is

born if you can be tracked. Gotta look at the darkest stuff. They are in this to make money...and not to just be a kindly service for you to share intimate family experiences. Big Pharma, Insurance, Car Companies, Baby Stores, Furniture Companies and on and on...would love to get your demographic. Where you go, where your relatives live, sex of your baby, family gatherings and where you plan to have them, vacation photos for Travel Sites to Mine...and on and on and on.

I know...we all think it's innocent and who would care about us... But, it's because for FaceBook to grow they need to sell Advertising and they will do it by DataMining you and everyone you interact with and sell you products that they think you might be interested in...while they keep on collecting more and more about us.

[Turborama]

76. If I can get some ads which show where good baby stores etc are in Indonesia I'd appreciate it

Direct advertising online is much more useful to me than random shit that I don't want or need.

[progressoid]

88. Eeek!

Your baby might grow up to be the next Osama!!111!!

[midnight]

10. So essentially we all should be receiving a paycheck from the

spy agencies for doing their job.

[Downwinder]

44. It is not welfare, you are a paid informant.

[Hannah Bell]

52. the entire technological rev. is all about making people do work for free that was formerly

paid work.

[Zorra]

11. Don't need to be a CIA analyst to figure that one out. Thanks for post. nt

[mountainlion55]

12. Oh I'm sure

Mr. Zuckerburg has our best interests in mind:sarcasm:

[TheEuclideanOne]

15. Nobody can cover this story as good as The Onion

This one is hilarious and remarkably similar to the story in this thread.


"The Onion: Facebook “Is Truly A Dream Come True For The CIA” "
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/21/fcebook-cia-onion/

[RaleighNCDUer]

19. Operation Farmville!

[DeSwiss]

20. K&R

- I agree Julian. I too try to avoid joining organizations that were http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMWz3G_gPhU&feature=player_detailpage#t=110s">initially funded by former members of the CIA.

[SoapBox]

21. Facebook...never done it, never will!

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TorchTheWitch]

77. I never understood the appeal

It's just MySpace 2.0. Can't be bothered and I prefer personal stuff remain personal and not hanging out for all the world or all the Facebook employees and their advertisers to see. I don't get the "to communicate with family and friends" excuse either... that's what group emails are for.

[blueamy66]

91. I disagree.

FB is fun. It's awesome to re-connect with old friends and family members that one has lost touch with.

It's sad to say, but without FB, I would have never reconciled with a very important part of my family.

I love seeing family photos and baby pics and the like.

I guess to each his own...but, my opinion....it's FUN!

[NickB79]

24. I have a friend from college who went to work for the US government as a translator

He spoke fluent Urdu, Farsi, Arabic, and Japanese (the man was insane when it came to learning languages).

He absolutely refuses to use Facebook, simply because of the kind of people it might associate him with (ie his old circle of friends from college) because he knows his superiors would be using it to check up on him.

[stormpilot]

26. all accessible to U.S. intelligence ? YES

Yes he is absolutely correct on that. I've had it proven to me, saw it with my own eyes, and I can't say any more than that.

[iandhr]

27. The Onion already talked about this

http://www.theonion.com/video/cias-facebook-program-dramatically-cut-agencys-cos,19753/

[harmonicon]

28. It amazes me that anyone (smart) uses facebook. nt.

[Uncle Joe]

30. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Roland.

[JDPriestly]

31. Yes. And the spying is on all sides so you wonder whether

it really qualifies as spying. Spying is trying to find out other people's most strictly guarded secrets. People don't or at least shouldn't put secrets on Facebook.

We are entering a new reality in which we don't have secrets. It is strange, but that is our new world. Will it be a world without shame? If so, what does that mean in terms of our behavior as a species?

[Raksha]

35. If it's a world without shame it makes all of us that much harder to blackmail.

So in that sense it's a good thing.

[KoKo]

70. Good Point...If everyone puts their "stuff" including "secrets" online...eventually does it overload

the system and become piles of gibberish that lead to nothing but confusion.

An interesting thought...if we "overload" the system does it no longer become useful for spies? :shrug:

[Quantess]

81. It's a world in which secrets are boring and tedious to sift through

You do need to pay someone to sit through all that...

[cottonseed]

32. I always believed that about marriage and birth announcements in my local newspaper.

An Appalling Spy Machine.... voluntarily subjugating myself to the PTB... rolling my fucking eyeballs...

[treestar]

34. Minute 16 passed long ago Julian

And of all people to talk! What about transparency? :rofl:

[jp11]

37. The internet did it period.

FB and everything else just increases the data to be collected and associated etc. Our public records are online, credit, DMV, etc all available for a fee, the government always had the option to take what they wanted with the patriot act and new internet laws they have it all.

[Roland99]

38. And remember the phone records made available by companies like AT&T w/o questions asked.

[Skidmore]

43. Yup, and we had another thread on finding a way to increase funding

on the next generation of supercomputers because they are good for us. We can't even control what we have now.

[Spike89]

42. Facebook is a toy

"They" have real computer tools and anyone who fears Facebook but owns a cell phone, uses e-mail, or has a registered account on DU has done much much more to provide "them" with useable personal intelligence than the weak and overly buggy databases of Facebook could give them.

That said, I guess Facebook would be a horrible medium for organizing your drug cartel.

[Roland99]

46. Or an XBOX Live account or a Sony PS3 online account or....

[KoKo]

68. Put everything together that you mention and know that EVERYTHING about Us..

and they can voice recognize, pattern track, use Face Recognition (family photos) etc. That's how they caught Bin Laden...if you read the reports about how they gathered the intelligence on him.

[Mutley]

53. Yes

The pictures of me at outings with my friends, and my posts about the weather and how much work sucked today are going to provide the CIA with some really valuable information alright.

[anarch]

55. but hey, if you're not doing anything wrong, you've got nothing to worry about, right?

:yoiks:

[Hannah Bell]

57. so say at least a couple of folks here...

[JackRiddler]

74. They're all good and noble Dr. Jekylls who never had a deviant thought.

[snagglepuss]

58. K & R nt

[Armstead]

59. It may be. But if they want to harvest my complaints about the weather or birthday greetings....

...They're welcome to it.

[stuntcat]

62. my favorite movies.. my favorite singers..

AND they know what my cats look like?! :scared:

I'm not just picking, well not really, it IS creepy the more I think about it, but I guess I don't know exactly what to be afraid of.

[Armstead]

65. They know what your cats look like? ....Uh Oh

But in all seriousness, my rule of thumb is that I never put anything on Facebook that I would 't do or say in the most public of places....I also steer clear of those special apps and such that wants to "access" my information.

[Roland99]

67. They've already trained dolphins...imagine what they can get cats to do!

[hunter]

61. It was game over for Osama bin Laden the moment he signed onto Facebook

One minute he's chatting with his war buddies about their glory days in Afghanistan, the next minute U.S. Navy Seals are knocking down his doors and shooting him in the face.

:sarcasm:

[defendandprotect]

69. kickey

[Turborama]

80. Turborama: If we're going to be that paranoid, Wikileaks is a "honeypot" for IPs that visit it

If everyone's FB details are "accessible to U.S. intelligence", they are, of course, also able to see who has visited Wikileaks.

And for the really paranoid; visits to Prison Planet, Infowars, Godlike Productions etc etc are also being recorded by them.

[Mojorabbit]

84. prison planet and godlike productions

are my entertainment. Once in a while a gem turns up in all that mess also but I enjoy the sites immensly because my mind is missing the imagination that these people have. It is fascinating to me.

[Quantess]

89. I have to agree with you, facebook is 99.99% trivial nonsense,

of no interest to anyone but marketers. Follow the money, people. If there's any interst in your comings and goings AT ALL, it is about how to market to you. Not because someone wants to put you in jail. That's so much further down the list of priorities, it almost doesn't deserve mention. Once again, how do we market to you?

[Warren DeMontague]

83. Then we have a responsibility to stop forcing people to join Facebook against their will.

Seriously. Get Amnesty International on the line.

[BlueIris]

86. In other news, Bush was a bad president. Welcome to The Cutting Edge In Conspiracy,

Circa 2006, Mr. Assange.

[cascadiance]

92. Another company I worry about is Carbonite...

Now, mind you I have absolutely NO information that those in charge of this company have done anything bad or are up to anything nefarious.

That being said, it's just a big concern about all of us using their online backup service all putting our private computer data on their cloud where if the government wanted to have a lot of access to personal information could have the key to decrypt any of the massive number of online backups that are stored there, if they had similar warrantless spying arrangements that AT&T, etc. had earlier for our phone calls.

I guess I'm also bugged that they heavily advertise on BOTH right wing and progressive talk radio shows (Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and more). I'm kind of wondering about that strategy. It's almost as if they can get access to most of the "activist" people in this country on both sides of the fence that way.

It would be good if Assange could address other firms than just Facebook to see if there are concerns for them as well from what he's seeing.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/publius-forum/2011/04/warrantless-searches-by-police-of-your-cell-phone.html

Warrantless Searches By Police of Your Cell Phone
...

The D4A campaign is worried about the fact that there isn't much by way of legal precedent to assure citizens that their cell phone data, their emails, and the data they've stored in could computing services or third party servers is secure from warrantless search.

The truth is, one can technically say that any data about you stored at Google or Facebook, your emails stored on GMail or Hotmail, your cell phone data zipping about on your wireless company's data storage systems, your computer backup files stored at Carbonite or other remote backup services, all this data about you is not "in your personal possession," the standard usually observed under the Fourth Amendment. Technically, all that data is actually stored on someone else's computer systems. Technically it isn't fully in your personal possession.

...

[GillesDeleuze]

93. All with CIA / GOLDMAN SACHS $$$$$$$$$$$$

glad im not on it.