October 9, 2011

During an instant message chat with a friend, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg infamously boasted about obtaining all kinds of information because “people just submitted it”. “They trust me — dumb f***s,” wrote Zuckerberg. Years later, this “in your face” approach continues to escalate. Facebook isn’t merely content to obtain the information people are willing to divulge of their own accord. Like a budding monstrosity from “The Little Shop of Horrors”, information-thirsty Venus Facetrap cajoles customers into providing more data than any social network in history ever aimed to acquire.

The latest trick includes disabling accounts for no reason whatsoever and requiring a color-copy of the government-issued driver license or ID as the only pathway to getting them restored. Facebook disingenuously accuses whistleblowers and outspoken government critics of having “inauthentic” accounts. This week, Facebook simultaneously disabled accounts of Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, BJ Davis and yours truly. It should be noted that all of us are public figures, using Facebook under our real names. Our only violation was to assume that we’re free to discuss politics, government corruption and whistleblower retaliation. Big mistake, since Facebook hates whistleblowers. Anyone who ever attempted to share any of the content published by Sibel Edmonds’ Boiling Frogs Post is all too familiar with annoying “captcha” pop-ups that inevitably follow. My investigative reports are often met with the same cyber sabotage. Having faced off against the Department of Homeland Security when they falsely declared me a Domestic Terrorist, I didn’t give much thought to what Facebook was doing – until now. In a way, I’m grateful for the recent ordeal, because it opened my eyes.

Here is an abbreviated list of what Facebook collects from its customers: name, address, physical location, telephone number, date of birth, photos, IP numbers, information about your browser and your computer’s operating system. Facebook receives metadata with the time, date, and place you took the photo or videouploaded to Facebook. It can access information on your Internet browsing activities even after you log out (Facebook admitted that its cookies “inadvertently included unique identifiers when the user had logged out of Facebook”). Anytime you read an article on the Internet, this action may be reported to your Facebook friends, whether or not you chose to share it or click the “Like” button. Your approval is no longer required to publicly share information about your online activities.

Do a little experiment and try to de-select check boxes that make your telephone number available to all of your Facebook friends. When you come back to the same page, you will find out that your selections have reverted to default setting. If you remove your phone number, you will be required to verify your account all over again by providing a number where confirmation text could be sent - and the beat goes on.

Facebook receives data as to whose profile you look at, with whom you exchange messages, any of the search terms you use and any ads you click on. It takes the liberty of deciding on your behalf which news articles and friends’ updates are deemed important enough to show up in your News Feed. Facebook not only collects information, it aims to control and censor it as well. These goals are consistent with our government’s Big Brother approach to the Internet. Facebook is compiling a massive dossier about over 800 million of its willing victims. The government is routinely tapping into this data. Armies of agents, paid with taxpayers’ dollars, spend their days with Social Networking Monitoring Center, creating fake accounts and sending friend requests to their intended victims.

For anyone who ever wondered why the number of their friends seems to fluctuate on a daily basis, there is an explanation. Phony government “friends” periodically disable their accounts to avoid detection (which is when the number of friends on your page suddenly drops) and re-activate them whenever they’re ready to do some snooping (that’s when your number of friends goes up).

When Big Brother wants to get more personal, they simply obtain a 2703(d) order to secure online records that are "relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation." The US Department of Justice released slides from its presentation entitled “Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites,” detailing various ways our government goes fishing for information online. Among other things, this document mentions how unusually “cooperative” Facebook is with providing data in response to “emergency requests.” Department of Homeland Security’s memo encouraged agents to exploit the "narcissistic tendencies" of Facebook users and to “friend” potential targets to gain access to private information.

Privacy as we know it is effectively dead. Most of us are facing a choice of either living our lives under a microscope or, in the alternative, being considered irrelevant. In social situations, people sit across from each other, obsessively staring into their electronic devices and ignoring those around them. Will we face each other or get lost in the labyrinth of Facebook? It’s up to every one of us to face the truth.   

http://www.examiner.com/homeland-security-in-los-angeles/facebook-f...