I remember a conversation here on FF yesterday where some folks suggested that platforms such as Facebook would be helpful in organising our privacy on the web. My answer, no way, there i only one person that can be responsible for that, and that is the user himself - Alexander van Elsas

This is one of those topics where a " like" doesn't seem to be appropriate ;-) - Alexander van Elsas

Do we have any corroborating evidence to support some of the claims? Do we have information about IAO's possible involvement in FB? This is important stuff. Thanks for the post! - phil baumann

I haven't got a clue if any of this information is true or not. It sounds pretty scary though - Alexander van Elsas

I agree about the like, but I "like" that it was posted. Be nice to have a FF feature to distinguish the two. ;-) - phil baumann

all your base are belong to the CIA. - Hao Chen

Can anybody verify these facts? - Brian Sullivan

The CIA can have all the pokes, zombies and other BS I ever received on Facebook. I rarely use it to be honest, it's just doesn't work for me - Alexander van Elsas

Once, I typed 'terrorist' in an IM, and my internet was shut off for 5 mins. :/ - Hao Chen

CIA would be interested in photos (facial recognition), profile info (dossier), and friends (known connections). - Hao Chen

People seem to think that they have a right to privacy when they post info about themselves on public sites like facebook, myspace etc. If you want privacy don't post your most intimate details. It isn't the government that I worry about but employers, ad agencies, insurance companies and crooks. If the CIA wants my info then they can have it, not sure what good it will do them. It is sometimes interesting to blog about the CIA and FBI and watch the government and military hits on my blog spike. - Don Rogers

Alexander - you had that conversation with me. :) I guess my confusion is this... you can only be responsible for your privacy in as much as the services you use allow you to be fine grained in your control. From the networks I've seen, it looks to me like FB has the finest grain control. Which still may not be enough, but it is certainly more than say, FriendFeed provides. - felix

Don, you would be AMAZED how many people have never read the privacy policy of Facebook, and even worse, are naive enough to believe that they are save from commercial exploitation. And let's be honest. There isn't a big first screen during sign up that reads "Be aware that this service is free because we use your data for commercial purposes" (now that would be clear). And what sort of bugs me is that in the press Facebook talks protecting privacy when they seem to mean protecting their own business. - Alexander van Elsas

Felix, Facebook sort of protects you from both the world outside Facebook and from users within. But it doesn't protect you from Facebook ;-) It would be much better if your important aspects of your on-line identities (there can be more) were implemented with you. And that you would have settings available that would allow you to control how much anyone (including Facebook) couls see of you - Alexander van Elsas

It's part of what I call the User Centric Web. You control your own data, and your own privacy. Service Providers liek Facebook become the gas station you visit when you are traveling somewhere. All they do is provide you service, no more ;-) - Alexander van Elsas

facebook.com + odnoklassniki.ru = 1984 - ǝuǝƃnǝ

Of course, much of the scary stuff mentioned applies to ALL social networking sites. The powers that be don't need our permission to data mine everything we do online. Still, I just decided to deactivate my facebook account which I've only had for one day. - Patrick Beard from twhirl