July 15, 2009

Facebook As Surveillance Tool

By Evgeny Morozov at NPR.org:

"A trusted colleague . . . has told me of a very disturbing episode . . . as [a friend] was flying to Iran last week . . . , she was asked by [immigration control] officers if she has a Facebook account. When she said "no", the officers pulled up a laptop . . . . They found her account and noted down the names of her Facebook friends.

"[First, this] means that the Iranian authorities are paying very close attention to what's going on Facebook and Twitter (which, in my opinion, also explains why they decided not to take those web-sites down entirely – they are useful tools of intelligence gathering).

"Second, . . . we have to be fully prepared to be quizzed about any online trace that we have left . . . .

"Third, this reveals that some of the spontaneous online activism we witnessed [in Iran during] the last few weeks - with Americans re-tweeting the posts published by those in Tehran - may eventually have very dire consequences, as Iranians would need to explain how exactly they are connected to foreigners that follow them on Twitter (believe me, I've observed enough bureaucratic stupidity in Eastern Europe to know that even some of the officials who follow Twitter activity on a daily basis may not know how it works)."
[Emphasis supplied.] (Thanks Dan!)

There is, of course, the equally dangerous likelihood that governmental and/or commercial Big Bros. know very well how Facebook and other online facilities work and are already actively mining at least some of them.

Even if you don't care about your own privacy, note that what you do online or elsewhere could affect your online friends. (And, what your online friends do, online or elsewhere, could affect you.) For more, enter "Facebook" in the "Search Blog" box in the upper left corner of this page.

2 comments:

  1. wow, just found this blog, - brilliant!

    I would close my Facebook account (which apparently we can't do in any case), if I didn't decide to do a PhD about it:) lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd like to know more about your PhD (thesis, I presume?)

    ReplyDelete