Assange: Facebook an Appalling Spying Machine

[Yuka]

I agree with Assange; Facebook and other "free" online social sites (or groups) are gold mines for data miners (no pun intended).

It's not an Assange thing, it's a "reality" thing. He's just pointing out the obvious.

Cheers!

 

[reggieray]

Assange is right with this one.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]bugo30[/nom]Huh, that seems like a description of wikileaks.[/citation]
You are obviously an idiot
Spying is gathering information in secret
Wikileaks has released information of everyone else spying into the public domain

 

[beachbod]

Because people expected the information they post on the internet to be private?

next article.

 

[mchuf]

[citation][nom]alidan[/nom]he reports it, but doesnt gather it personally. and defiantly not on the innocent people.[/citation]
Revealing secret diplomatic documents does put innocent people in harms way.

 

[jaksun5]

@mchuf: Revealing secret diplomatic documents allows the tax paying citizens to have a transparency that keeps their governments honest. Everyone, but especially Americans, should make it their top priority to make sure their goverment is accountable over turning an (albeit run by a dictator) fairly safe country (Iraq) into a country where tens of thousand's are killed each year in religious turf wars because no one holds a balance of power. All on the back of the shadiest evidence of non existent WDMs.

Anyone who's concerned about this transparency 'putting innocent people in harms way' needs to stop watching Fox news and start watching real news ie. Al Jazeera and BBC. Otherwise you deserve having a shoe thrown at you.

 

[nicklasd87]

Lol now we're talking about WMD's?

Anyway, despite the fact that I despise Assange for being responsible for the deaths of many assets who were providing intelligence for various countries, he is correct that Facebook is a spying tool. He is incorrect to limit it to just the US though, the enemy uses Facebook in such a way as well because people are dumb enough to put valuable information about themselves up there, for example, people in the Intel community will actually post their job description on Facebook. That is valuable to terrorists because it makes the Intel guy a target for counter Intel operations, like bribes, exploitation, stuff like that.

What Assange should be saying is keep personal information to a minimum on Facebook, don't post incriminating stuff, or stuff that will make you a valuable target by any adversary.

 

[nicklasd87]

Lol and Jaksun, I appreciate that you are probably a troll, but the US government is accountable already. All classified documents have a declassification date, and once the documents are declassified, they are released into public domain.

 

[clonazepam]

That's why I've designated Facebook as a means to talk to only those that graduated with me at my high school. I've done this so its nothing that couldn't already be found in the yearbook.

I've done it this way mainly because x-girlfriends from as far back as 15 years had resurfaced only to grief me, from as far as 3000 miles away lol... (that happened on myspace which ive since deleted).

Some women just put too much stock on pretty blue eyes haha

 

[milktea]

Agree with Assange on this. But he only merely repeats what is already known.

 

[HolyCrusader]

People post information on a public forum and expect the information to be private?

This has been done to death already. That Assange says it makes it newsworthy?

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]mchuf[/nom]Revealing secret diplomatic documents does put innocent people in harms way.[/citation]
No, it is massively embarrassing and a reminder to American Diplomats that they can't talk trash about the other 95% of the worlds population.

Like calling the Italian Prime Minister a playboy, sure he is but you don't go around saying it in official documentation and now it's come back to bite them in the ass.

Maybe if they were a bit more professional and treated everyone with a bit more respect it wouldn't have been such a big deal, but again the US Diplomatic Service has a child-like view of the world divided into "them and us", the USA needs to recall all theses so-called Diplomats for a bit of sensitivity training and maybe a cultural awareness seminar or two and any that don't pass a high standard should be fired and replaced with people who don't think that the USA is the only country in the world.

[citation][nom]nicklasd87[/nom]Lol and Jaksun, I appreciate that you are probably a troll, but the US government is accountable already. All classified documents have a declassification date, and once the documents are declassified, they are released into public domain.[/citation]

If I trash-talked someone and it came to light after I was dead I wouldn't care either.

 

[bardia]

[citation][nom]Miller890101[/nom]America is such a disgrace, talk about land of the free; Land of the willfully ignorant perhaps.[/citation]

Who cares about if law enforcement uses facebook? We have civil rights and the 2nd Amendment to protect our freedoms.

How many firearms do you own? None? Sounds to me like you're a subject, not a free citizen.

PS. What freedoms you have PROBABLY were copied from us... so thanks for the vote of support pal.

 

[bardia]

Anyone who's concerned about this transparency 'putting innocent people in harms way' needs to stop watching Fox news and start watching real news ie. Al Jazeera and BBC.

I LOL'd.

 

[Yoder54]

[citation][nom]Miller890101[/nom]America is such a disgrace, talk about land of the free; Land of the willfully ignorant perhaps.[/citation]

Well, compared to most countries we do have a lot of freedoms to do and say what we want. To say the US populace is willfully ignorant is a bit of a stretch. Sounds like infantile talk to me.

Assange is a moron. Why does he just point his finger at the US, when anyone who wants can access information on Facebook? If the US is using Facebook to spy, then what are our enemies doing--looking the other way? He is as big a joke as his claims. It all reads like Assange is taking from Trump's playbook--a pathetic attempt to garner attention via the media. He is obviously desperate to gain the acceptance to the populace, but all he is doing is making a fool of himself with his fear mongering.

Besides, I seriously doubt if any information valuable to the US intelligence community is posted on Facebook, if it is then our enemies are dumber than I thought. Furthermore, if you are under suspicion by the feds then what you post on Facebook is the least of your worries. Finally, much like Trix, Facebook is for kids.

 

[Raidur]

Tell me something I don't know!

I left facebook a while ago due to this.

I'd hope anyone that wants their personal lives to stay... well... personal, to do the same!

 

[djsting]

Everytime we post to facebook, the Gov't is spying on us... ... ... ...

Somehow, I don't see the harm in the Gov't knowing that yesterday, my mom baked a pie and last weekend, I saw Fast Five, which I enjoyed btw.

I agree that people give out way too much info on these websites, but the gov't has other ways of getting info on people that is far more damaging than knowing you have a crush on Justin Bieber....

 

[bardia]

[citation][nom]djsting[/nom]Everytime we post to facebook, the Gov't is spying on us... ... ... ...Somehow, I don't see the harm in the Gov't knowing that yesterday, my mom baked a pie and last weekend, I saw Fast Five, which I enjoyed btw.I agree that people give out way too much info on these websites, but the gov't has other ways of getting info on people that is far more damaging than knowing you have a crush on Justin Bieber....[/citation]

^this. I'm an attorney. The "government" has background on me a mile long, and detailed fingerprints from every part of me except my buttcheeks. I'm somehow not terribly concerned about them knowing the crap I post on facebook. In fact, maybe my political rants will sway some poor CIA underling =p

 

[dalethepcman]

That the government can access your facebook data is no big secret. Anyone with access to Google can probably find the aswers to all of your secret questions and access your accounts. The people that use twitter and facebook to post their every move on the internet are willingly (albeit unknowingly in many cases) giving up their privacy.

I am all for the right to privacy, but if the recent articles read "Serial rapist caught by iPhone tracking system" everyone would be rejoicing except the rapist. If you are worried about "Big Brother" coming after you, then you have probably done something wrong. Unless you are planing on doing criminal activities then you really shouldn't care if the governments knows who your friends are.

 

[gm0n3y]

[citation][nom]shandi235[/nom]Assange speaking out against spying and espionage. The irony here is delicious[/citation]
I don't think you understand the meaning of the word 'irony'.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I don't use any social networking tools because of the ability they have to mine the details of your entire life and the lives of those around you. I'm worried mostly about applying for jobs and having employers finding photos of me doing ridiculous things (sometimes I party too hard), but the thought of somebody stealing data from Facebook, etc and to a lesser degree the gov't spying on me also gives me cause to avoid those sites. Sure there are privacy settings on the sites, but then I'm trusting the privacy of the details of my life up to random companies and any others they decide to share the data with. Working in the IT field, I know just how poorly data is protected at most companies.