What are the federal guidelines for using social networks?

What are my rights and how do I protect myself on the Internet (I don't use intranet or extranet connections)?

I wonder if the government will give EFF access to the information they need and how it would affect me (us) personally?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the CIA, the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and three other government agencies on Tuesday for allegedly refusing to release information about how they are using social networks in surveillance and investigations.

The nonprofit Internet rights watchdog group formally asked more than a dozen agencies or departments in early October to provide records about federal guidelines on the use of sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr for investigative or data gathering purposes, according to the lawsuit.

The government agencies could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

EFF sues feds for social-network surveillance

So far as I know (I AM NOT A LAW EXPERT), there are no federal guidelines. The internet, however, should be considered public property. If you're in the phone book and I have your name and city, I can call you.

Much like accessing bank records or phone records, the lawmen, can just as easily get a warrant to access facebook's records that the company has for you.

In trying to solve a case, I would expect my law enforcement agencies use all the power necessary to catch criminals.

However, what the PATRIOT Act has done has allowed the 'sniffing' of internet traffic for keywords and phrases. Once your tapped, you could be listened to and watched for months without your personal knowledge just because you put a few words in an email or facebook update.

Federal agency guidelines are drawn up based on the laws set forth by congress. Opening up their methodology to capturing criminals, thereby allowing circumvention, is not something law enforcement wants to do.

There was a whistleblower (WHo worked at a ISP) a while back that caught people from the government accessing the Whole Internet and all activity.(At his job) And that More or less all ISP's corperated except Qwest (I saw this on Dateline or 20/20 4 years ago)

^
That was the when the NSA was requesting telephone records, and yes AT&T and all the others complied except for Qwest. A federal judge ruled against the NSA and said that phone companies do not have to comply.

Enjoy your 'freedom' and right to privacy





EAVESDROPPING 101:
WHAT CAN THE NSA DO?

NSA Octopus
www.nsawatch.org...

ECHELON Intercept Stations are all over the world as are MUOS(Mobile User Objective System) listening posts

The new 'secret' NSA computer station at Fort Gorden Georgia
www.thelivingmoon.com...




www.thelivingmoon.com...

Super Computer - Worlds fastest water cooled computer - This is one of the 'old' ones

Thank you everyone for your awesome replies!!! I will formulate an intelligent reply and return to post.

I am very late. By the time that I was able to return posts much time had passed. But it's never too late to care so....

I was bad and I am sorry.

Please don't flog me.

Starblossom

What are the federal guidelines for using social networks?

This generally falls into the terms of service for the social network you are on, eg ATS. It is up to ATS to decide what users and comments are unacceptable and remove them. They generally use the Terms of Service to decide. All sites have there own terms of service arrangements. Things that are grossly obscene like child pornography, terrorist material, fraud, ect can fall under federal guidelines and be reviewed by federal officers to help build a case in the event of a crime. Each nation has it's own federal guidelines for what is illegal. There has been some transnational organisation to help combat the local legal issues with global stings on child pornography networks one example.

What are my rights and how do I protect myself on the Internet?

Your ISP provides your right to connect to the internet, different sites have different terms and conditions associated to them. While copyright is generally enforced by large media groups, you do have a right to copy when it is in the public interest. Reading all the terms and conditions can be a bit dry, but that is where the line is if it goes to court.

To protect yourself, be careful with your personal details, especially your date of birth and other important numbers. An anti virus software package is also highly recommended, Advast is a free one I use. If you are using a Windows Operating System, 'Threatfire' is another good package. No anti virus software is 100% effective so Threatfire works by looking for virus like behaviour.

I wonder if the government will give EFF access to the information they need and how it would affect me (us) personally?

There are lots of government and other bodies with many complex privacy policies, generally the public interest is reasonably protected but not always. To be on the safe side, do not put anything out that you are not willing to stand by.

Originally posted by PennySaint
There was a whistleblower (WHo worked at a ISP) a while back that caught people from the government accessing the Whole Internet and all activity.(At his job) And that More or less all ISP's corperated except Qwest (I saw this on Dateline or 20/20 4 years ago)

That was Mark Klein at AT&T in San Fran. NSA put fiber optic splitters at different AT&T and other telcom hubs and exchanges around the US. Since the telcoms basically have a "peer relationship" with each other i.e. use each others infrastructure, those splitters essentially "bugged" the entire internet. Whether a telcom (QWest) cooperated or not, data and voice was still collected.

Read "Shadow Factory" by James Bamford, it tells all about it.

We all need to face facts. If you're on the net, you're being collected on or monitored. Whether it's the govt or private companies checking potential employees for Facebook or MySpace accounts.