"Note: According to facebook’s privacy policy, messages on facebook can not be deleted anymore. If you click on ‘delete’ the messages will only be invisible to you. US law enforcement agencies can access this information at there own liking, without judicial review."
That last one is scary indeed. People were arguing a while ago whether these companies should keep data only for 6 months, or for a year, or 18 months - but Facebook is simply keeping it forever. Even 10 years from now law enforcement could verify your Facebook data.
Facebook Timeline should give them a nice UI, too, in case you don't delete anything. But they would still want to dig deep. I wonder if Facebook built a special Timeline product for law enforcement to see everything about everyone. Remember when they admitted a while ago that they provide law enforcement a special software for the data? I wonder if the idea of Timeline for users comes from that.
Julian Assange was dead-on that Facebook is the biggest spying machine.
It also seems to indicate a deliberate quasi-law-enforcement role being played by Facebook. If Facebook handed over data when presented with warrants, the "without judicial review" wouldn't be true. That can only be true if they're purposely partnering with law enforcement, to voluntarily offer them data that courts haven't requested.
Reduces any qualms I might have about calls for Facebook to be regulated as a public utility, if it's actively choosing to act as an arm of the government anyway. Public utilities are actually, despite being much more entangled with the state in some ways, more separated from the state when it comes to law-enforcement. For example, the phone company can't just choose to record all your calls and give them to the police without a warrant.
It's not Facebook's call. The USA PATRIOT Act allows for National Security Letters, or NSLs, that legally function like warrants but require no judicial review. The US government uses them over 60,000 times per year. The law allowing them turns ten years old next month.
Precisely. If you want to place blame, it goes squarely on the Bush Administration. (And yes, I'm sure I'll be down-voted for saying that, but it's still unquestionably, uncontroversially, non-debatably true.) If you want this fixed, it has to be fixed politically at a federal level.
> Precisely. If you want to place blame, it goes squarely on the Bush Administration. (And yes, I'm sure I'll be down-voted for saying that, but it's still unquestionably, uncontroversially, non-debatably true.)
Wasn't the Patriot Act recently renewed, where "recently" means "post-Bush"?
> If you want this fixed, it has to be fixed politically at a federal level.
And Dems, who voted for the initial version overwhelmingly, were uninterested in doing so when they held all three elected branches and that didn't change when they lost one.
So, yes, it's true that it was passed under Bush, but no one is interested in fixing it. (Yes, I'm ignoring Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich.)
It'd be interesting to know if that covers 100% of data releases to the state. Does Facebook release data to law enforcement in cases other than either: 1) pursuant to a warrant; or 2) compelled by a National Security Letter? I would guess yes, but I'd be interested in a solid statement either way.
It's not like the telecomm corps in the US haven't been caught handing over info to cops/FBI without warrants or NSL letters (or handing over more than required when presented with a warrant or NSL).
That last one is scary indeed. People were arguing a while ago whether these companies should keep data only for 6 months, or for a year, or 18 months - but Facebook is simply keeping it forever. Even 10 years from now law enforcement could verify your Facebook data.
Facebook Timeline should give them a nice UI, too, in case you don't delete anything. But they would still want to dig deep. I wonder if Facebook built a special Timeline product for law enforcement to see everything about everyone. Remember when they admitted a while ago that they provide law enforcement a special software for the data? I wonder if the idea of Timeline for users comes from that.
Julian Assange was dead-on that Facebook is the biggest spying machine.