The man makes some good points. I'm always amazed at what people will trust to giant corporations, particularly social media giants like Facebook. Naturally, Facebook is not entirely to blame - people still have to make the decision to post the information - but from a certain point of view it represents a clever manipulation. If you think Facebook's privacy "controls" mean anything, you're nuts.
That is good point and one reason why I tend to self-censor myself on Facebook but that has less to do with fear of the government tracking me and more about potential clients, family and etc... On the other hand Facebook, Twitter have undoubtedly played a role in the Arab spring and while Facebook might be on US servers there are many other social media that are not and as Facebook grows I doubt they will remain solely on US servers. I get the feeling that even if the US government wanted to manipulate or control Facebook it will be difficult.
It's not about self censoring yourself. They more information than you can dream of just by looking at your friends, your activity, where you are when you access it from your cell phone and google can tie all of your google searches back to your facbook page and associate you with them based on the cookies stored on your browser. Google and facebook have both admitted that they NEVER delete any information and you can NEVER Truly delete your facebook account. I left facebook over 1 year ago and I was disgusted that I could never actually delete my account.
It's a Brave New World. The good news is that the government is too idiotic to be able control everything. The bad news is that there are idiots running our government. Not the point though. People are opting into the death of their privacy. Whereas one would keep some aspects of his life locked away in a bank or naturally forgotten by others, digital media is permanent and more porous than we think. If one day in the future, a hypothetical Judoka Jr decides to chronicles his youthful exploits in drugs and petty crime, and later decides to run for public office, anyone with that automatic supoena privilege can upload that tidbit whether Jud Junior knows/allows it or not. Maybe you're right. It should be a contract with discretion in mind, but it goes beyond shielding your info from families, peers and colleagues and more about having a backdoor in your mistake prone life that you should be able to close.
Possibly true, but control of Facebook itself is hardly the point. Access to the information is the real objective.
If I wanted it private, I wouldn't broadcast it to the world. Just like I wouldn't post on this board.
Also it's important to keep in mind that your participation is not entirely necessary. If you're hanging out at a party, you can end up on facebook even if you have no account of your own. You don't control what information is released about you, and Facebook facilitates this on an epic scale (perhaps illegally).
I completely agree and I agree that this is voluntary opt out of privacy. As I tell people Facebook aint private! My specific comment was that while yes Facebook and other social media have provided the governments with a wonderful tool to track people and such at the same time they have also proven to be a tool to overcome government control of information. I agree with Assange's point that the US intelligence could use Facebook in the ways he describes but at the same time I think that Facebook and social media is also a way to combat government control.
Except for using Facebook and other social media to counter the government(s) message. It sounds like Assange is looking at social media as a net negative in regard to individual liberty versus government control. I don't see it that way and I think the Arab Spring shows that social media is a very powerful tool to counter government power. Also if I could speak to Assange directly I would point out that the success of Wikileaks has a lot to do with word getting out through social media. Along with the personal popularity of Assange.
That's a good point. It could be argued that Assange has a lot in common with the people sharing information wildly on Facebook, inasmuch as he views the matter as a binary system.
I'll still be spooked at the "Who watches the Watchmen" aspect. While we can allow ourselves to think that being snatched away in the cold night is still in conspiracy land territory, knowledge is power. Holding that information, our information, with their ocean of computer forensic resources is a horribly bad idea. It's not like it hasn't been publicly exposed before. They're just not as stupid as to call it another Enemies List.
Do you honestly think most folks are aware of this? Or that they even understand how a collection of typically trivial "public" information can be used to ascertain very "private" data?
I think while far fetched such fears here in the US are not out of the realm of possibility and I agree that the amount of info that the government, or a corporation or stalker, could get from social media is disturbing. At the same time though if the government were to "disappear" you thanks to social media your disappearance could be made known to a lot of people. Consider how word was gotten out Worldwide about the young woman who was killed by the Iranian security forces in the protests two years ago. That was due to word getting out via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Social media is certainly a two edged sword but I think so far it has proven to be a far greater tool for pro-democracy and individual freedom than for government control.
Unfortunately there are many who aren't aware of this. I have heard even recently quite a few complain about how their private pics and comments were circulated more widely than they intended.
I see people posting on Facebook that Facebook isn't really private and to be careful......right below the endless pictures of their kids....... It's to the point now that I only use my FB account to laugh at the idiotic updates my "friends" constantly post. It's been out of control (in a good way) since the bin laden killing. Oh yeah, I also use it to locate bikini pics of my hot coworkers - which I did last night with little to no effort. It's funny....if I told them there were bikini pics of them "on the internet", they would probably freak out. But they have no problem posting them on FB. It's like they can't distinguish between the two.
I actually agree with something Julian Assange says. World must be coming to an end. Friends of mine make fun of me because of my privacy concerns about Facebook. It's a giant (and dangerous) information pool. I can't understand wanting to put large amounts of personal information in one place for so many to easily view.
"Disappearing" people is pretty rare for Western nations, but using personal information from social media to discredit you, tarnish your name in front of your peers and family, or even influencing your wife and children for silence is real in our context. Various groups might even do something as farfetched as labeling you a rapist and issuing warrants without merit. Are many whistleblowers/activists willing to cross that line when they're normal people with normal interests who happen to dabble in Facebook to feel connected with their community?
