Facebook a CIA Front?

This is just not scary to me at all because it is I who decides what information to put into the internet and it is I who decides what products to by or not to buy. marketers, salesmen and spooks can snoop all they want, the power still lies with me. In fact most people would probably feel honoured if they were important enough to be spied on. I agree with the former poster who said that data-mining is used to be ahead of trends that are developing in the world. If I were a government leader, Id have the same interest in knowing what exactly is going on with my people.

Originally posted by douglas2k4
Seriously though, why do people use these sites? If the CIA is involved, and you know, why are you still using it? Isn't that...you know...stupid?

Look, the internet is "supposed" to be a pretty anonymous place, I don't think people understand this. Of course, I've had conversation with people who say "well, I use myspace to keep in touch with my friends"...and I ask "but at what cost?" Obviously they don't completely understand that if a complete stranger can visit your site (which happens ALOT), what would make it any harder for the CIA too?

If you have a facebook account and have not added person x as your friend they CANNOT view your profile.

If you have MySpace and your profile is set to private then person x CANNOT see your profile.

AFAIK there is no way around this. Granted I would not be surprised if law enforcement and MySpace/Facebook admin have a master password, a special feature, etc that can get this past this but for the average person there is no way past the private profiles.

found this video about facebook on this same topic. The video goes into the same information that the OP discussed.
facebook is set up to look attractive to young adults. and they submit everything about themselves into this mining site. the terms of service and their
privacy policy looks like the members might as well sell their soul.
I guess the people who sign up do not read the TOS or privacy policy.










[edit on 15-7-2007 by 1freelectron]

Good post. Everyone should be informed of this governmental datamining operation. Though, most don't even care. As if they can't make enough off the average person from taxes, they have to take it international and sell the information to corps.

I saw the albumoftheday video a while back. both my wife and I are regular MySpace users and her friends started using facebook. I showed her the video and that was the end to that.

I doubt that most on facebook users even know what lies beneath. I've actually thought about signing up for an account, just to message people and send links to the albumoftheday video. I wonder how fast the "fast growing" movement of facebook would drop off if each FaceBook user sent that video to a friend.

Personally, I think it's all self-hyped. I think there has been a gradual increase in their numbers for quite some time and it was only when MySpace had a slow month that they tried to make a big deal about it to get international attention, thus gaining more subscribers. It's all a government facade.

facebook haha lets see i have my name on there um my birthday, an address....well lets see the goverment would have my birth certificate somewhere so they know how old i am.....um if you look my name up in the phone book you can see where i live and my address....i suppose they could look at the religous and political veiws haha but i d k why because hlag of it is just o lets be a demo or maybe i should be a repub. hahaha If you dont like it dont sign up for it and dont bitch about it.....its not ment to be private haha i mean come on people....its the internet ahah you all make me laugh.....

Originally posted by cav01c14
Thast the thing use waht against me???? I really dont get it why do people care about it so much. Anyone can look at your facebook as long as you sign up.

Yeah - but what if you were gay? Or jewish? Or an Arab? Or maybe you vote Democrat? Or you support some enviromental campaign? Or some Union cause? Or.....fill in the blank...

Then let's suppose G W Bush (or whoever) decides to 're-house' (Let's say at Guantanamo Bay..) all Jews/Arabs?gays/Enviromentalists/ (fill in your blank) - and you happen to be on that little list because your Facebook profile is in CIA hands?

That's where it starts to get dangerous...

J.

[edit on 15-7-2007 by jimbo999]

Originally posted by brotherforchrist
Thanks for defending Freemasonry, a lot of people bash it without realizing that the very tenets that our democracy are based upon are masonic, things that we take for granted like separation of church and state (which is to keep from a government imposed religion),the declaration of independence, the constitution, so many of the founding fathers of our country were Freemasons,and rom what I see they did a decent job at laying the groundwork for democracy.

That being said, on to the topic, that truly is some scary stuff, I am not a fan of the thought that in a democracy we "keep tabs on" people whose views are outside of the box, or deviate from "the norm",to me the whole point of having a democracy is so that people can believe whatever they choose.

You are welcome. The mostly-Masonic forefathers gave us the best government the world has ever seen in the Constitution. Some would say we lost our true government after the Civil War, which took away states rights to succede from the union and formalized the heavy influence of the overly-strong federal government.

I don't like the government keeping tabs on us either, but I personally think the reason they do so may be misunderstood. I think they may be doing so is because they know that currently civilization on this planet is going through an evolution on this planet from a type 0 civilization to a type 1 civilization. Here's a good video interview with theoretical physicist Michio Kaku that sums it up pretty well:

vids.myspace.com...

I think that because this evolution, there is going to "growing pains" associated with this change in one form or another of violent terrorist activity of groups that are against this evolution from happening. I think that the first sign that we are entering into this new era of humankind, planet-wide cooperation will be a massive deflation of some world economies, which may lead to a worldwide economic depression.

Many economists predict that this may happen in the next couple of years. I have been an avid reader of "The Economist" magazine and they have talking of this possibility for at least 10 years now. Mainly because of inflationary economics and massive debt of citizens and countries such as America. Another sign that we are evolving as a civilization is the globalization of business.

I think that they may snoop on fringe thought of society, because these are the people that are going to be the first to understand what the future may hold, but also because it is also where the most terrorist activity may come from. Mainly, because some of these fringe thinkers may only see one-side of what is happening get outraged and run with it towards violence against the populace or the government.

Of course, if someone gains power in our government that wants to be a totalitarian dictator becomes president. They may use these powers that the government currently has and use it to completely control and oppress the populace, but I think there may be safe guards against that type of thing from happening. That is the slippery slope to a totalitarian government that I was talking about.

Of course, if America goes into a depression this power may be used to stop rioters and massive civil unrest as well.

Personally, I don't like our loss of privacy, but it may be for actual good purposes in the long run. It would just be nice for people to think about the other side of the coin once and a while and look big picture. I know that is how many in the federal government see the world.

If you are interested in learning more about this evolution to the "Singularity" as some call it. A great site is:

www.kurzweilai.net...

Who know it may not happen, if nothing else, we are living in a very interesting period of time.

Originally posted by jimbo999

Originally posted by cav01c14
Thast the thing use waht against me???? I really dont get it why do people care about it so much. Anyone can look at your facebook as long as you sign up.

Yeah - but what if you were gay? Or jewish? Or an Arab? Or maybe you vote Democrat? Or you support some enviromental campaign? Or some Union cause? Or.....fill in the blank...

Then let's suppose G W Bush (or whoever) decides to 're-house' (Let's say at Guantanamo Bay..) all Jews/Arabs?gays/Enviromentalists/ (fill in your blank) - and you happen to be on that little list because your Facebook profile is in CIA hands?

That's where it starts to get dangerous...

J.

[edit on 15-7-2007 by jimbo999]

You really think they could do that. I don't thing their Gitmo facilities have room for millions of people. I find it a fairly ridiculous thought.

I mean how in th world would they do that? I mean just the resources that it would take to get that "crazy 8 ball" rolling would be ridiculous. I mean what are they going to go through Facebook and go:

"Hey this guy recycles, let's bring him in and torture that right out of him. We can't have that in society" or "Hey this girl doesn't believe Jesus Christ was not our Savior. We can't have that!"

That is too funny! Seriously, I can't stop laughing!

The only people that they are interested in are people that are working on planning violence against the populace or the government. In other words, what is called terrorism. They aren't going to be the "thought police," because it is unfeasible. Feel free to speak, and express your opinion, it is a "God given right."

And be careful when taking your recycling out, going to your house of worship, or going to drink with your buddies down at the union hall, you never know when they are going to crackdown on good ideas.

Sorry if I seem condescending, it is a funny thought. And if they crackdown against free speech or free belief, I will the first one speaking out against it even if does mean taking an extended vacation down in Cuba.

Just one small technical point, folks. The CIA doesn't need to front as Facebook. They already mine the data generated by that site. They don't needto 'own' it.

Originally posted by Justin Oldham
Just one small technical point, folks. The CIA doesn't need to front as Facebook. They already mine the data generated by that site. They don't needto 'own' it.

You got me Oldham. heh. To be honest, the name of the thread is alittle misleading, as at most, it appears that the CIA pays for Facebook, and other agencies, like the NSA, and the IAO (now operation TopSail) through DARPA actually "Run" the site.

Originally posted by frailty You really think they could do that. I don't thing their Gitmo facilities have room for millions of people. I find it a fairly ridiculous thought.

I'd say he was stating that as an extreme example. Though if you want to get technical the Readiness Excercise 1984 (REX 84) plan is a training operation of what to do in the case of civil unrest or a national emergency. FEMA would round up Subversives based on a list kept by the FBI (more likely the NSA today) called the ADEX list. Essentially it would be a list of people in the united states considered as a Subversive entity that could be instigating or antagonizing society in a time of civil unrest or crisis. The list itself was made by analyzing specific traits and habbits of people. These were usually fairly odd and vague descriptions, probably pushed by a political agenda. You can still see open traces of these descriptors in various FBI training books, like this excerpt, of how to spot a "terrorist." These were the traits that our own FBI claimed spotted a potential Terrorist.

Defenders of the U.S. Constitution against federal government and the UN
Groups of individuals engaging in para-military training
Those who make numerous references to the U.S. Constitution
Those who attempt to police the police
Lone individuals
Rebels
Property rights activists
Environmental and animal rights activists
Members of street gangs
Focused and committed
Team-oriented and disciplined
Familiar with their physical environments
Employ a variety of vehicles and communicate by cell phone, email, or text messaging
Try not to draw attention to themselves
Look like students, tourists, or businesspersons
Travel in a mixed group of men, women, and children
Avoid confrontations with law enforcement

They'd use these traits, and probably more, maybe "who read catcher in the rye" is a descriptor to round up "Subversive elements."

I mean how in th world would they do that? I mean just the resources that it would take to get that "crazy 8 ball" rolling would be ridiculous. I mean what are they going to go through Facebook and go:

"Hey this guy recycles, let's bring him in and torture that right out of him. We can't have that in society" or "Hey this girl doesn't believe Jesus Christ was not our Savior. We can't have that!"

Almost all of the internment camps used in both the German-American, Japanese American, and Italian American, Internments during WWII are all still active, being guarded and upkept.

Facebook. When I first heard of this new trendy thing called "Facebook" I knew it was trouble. I've always been a cynic about privacy on the internet - if you're old enough to know what a "line eater" is, you know what I mean. I'm a veteran of the net, was using BBS's and online services before the huge internet explosion... things like GEnie, Compuserve and others. Nothing is private once it's digitized. Just KNOW THAT - ALWAYS.

This stuff isn't new. It's old, old, old. Check out the line eater if you don't know what that is already. If there is anything near the truth to the line eater, or any other data mining automation going on, everything that's ever been typed and transmitted over the net is locked away somewhere. There's your datamine. Geez.

The scariest part is that Facebook is one of thousands of ways The Man can study and store information on the individual. Who's to say they aren't ogling the post you're reading right now? Watching you here on ATS on a constant basis? All of your emails are as open as postcards, always were and always will be. Nothing is private on the Net. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Gmail, Hotmail, Digg, Facebook, flickr, whatever - they're all the same. Whenever you create an account on any system, you're creating a new record for yourself in their databases.

Have fun with the Net, but caveat emptor.

[edit on 15-7-2007 by JRCrowley]

Little light humour here. well to me it is.

I was probably the first person to hack facebook system.
i didn't do anything tricky. i just wrote a bot that made everyone on my network friends with me, i got all their emails and id's so i could write another bot to promote a really good software product for the people in my network.

they caught me by having some kind of monitor tracking how fast i was accessing pages.


Anyways after that they breafed up security.

Originally posted byJRCrowley
Who's to say they aren't ogling the post you're reading right now?

I do not doubt that they are logging every piece of information that they are able to record on the internet right now. But, just because it's already become the norm, does that mean we should give up our right to personal privacy without a fight?

Originally posted by Justin Oldham
The CIA doesn't need to front as Facebook.

Of course they don't need to own FaceBook. But, why then all the investment and special employees? My best guess would be conditioning for public acceptance. It's a psychological reverse effort of the "If you can't beat them – join them" routine. After all, the easiest way in infiltrate an enemy is to make friends with them. That's not to say they think the public is there enemy ... just those who's ideas don't agree with their planned agenda for them.

Originally posted byfrailty
The only people that they are interested in are people that are working on planning violence against the populace or the government.

I personally think the reason they do so may be misunderstood.

There was an organization set up 74 years ago called the Gestapo. When this organization was founded, it's main objective was to investigate and counter all entities dangerous to the state. This included acts as criminal behavior, spying, treason and other such acts. It was very much like the FBI. In 1936 laws were passed which gave the Gestapo special rights to investigate without judicial oversight. Much like many United States government organizations such as the NSA, FBI, CIA, SS, and DHS operate today with the induction of the Patriot Act.

The Gestapo was also the organization responsible for setting up concentration camps.

Originally posted bycav01c14
If you dont like it dont sign up for it and dont bitch about it.

Did you sign up to pay taxes? No? Well, don't bitch about it anyway.

What makes America great is that we still have the freedom to "bitch" about the things we don't agree with. In fact, that's one of the reasons this country was founded. That's not a freedom all the countries in the world get to enjoy. If you "bitched" about the government 30 years ago in China, you may have ended up missing. Or better yet, you may have been made an example of by public execution. Be thankful you have the right to bitch. And you shouldn't condem others for exercising their rights.

Concerning the OP....are there any links or anything that back all of that up? Or this just and opinion thread? Just curious....

As far as facebook and privacy, etc.
Facebook is no different from any place else really.
The Pulse? lol

We use non-identifying and aggregate information to better design our website and to share with advertisers. For example, we may tell an advertiser that X number of individuals visited a certain area on our website, or that Y number of men and Z number of women filled out our registration form, but we would never disclose anything that could be used to identify any individuals.

The above is from this web site's privacy policy. What's the difference?

You also need an email to join this site. Facebook can't touch emails as far as datamining, etc. Since people are only taking snippets of the policy, here's Facebook's whole policy:
www.facebook.com...
Don't see how this different from any email account (excluding your personal profile which you can control who sees).


[edit on 15-7-2007 by ThatsJustWeird]

Originally posted by brotherforchrist
Thanks for defending Freemasonry, a lot of people bash it without realizing that the very tenets that our democracy are based upon are masonic, things that we take for granted like separation of church and state (which is to keep from a government imposed religion),the declaration of independence, the constitution, so many of the founding fathers of our country were Freemasons,and rom what I see they did a decent job at laying the groundwork for democracy.

Actually, no they didn't. The Founding Forefathers laid out a Constitutional Republic, but the government has since reduced it to a Democracy. The Founding Forefathers actually loathed Democracy! Here's one of the primary reasons: In a Democracy, 51% of the Citizens can literally "vote away" all of the Rights of the remaining 49%...Thus, with proper surveilance of the population & a measure of propaganda control, the Government literally manipulates the nation into Tyranny. That is exactly what Hitler used to gain power in Germany...Knowledge of public traits was used to incite reactions from the public with his own Nazi Party so that the People would literally hand him total Power on a silver plate.

That's why you should be very leary of your Government data-mining...

hahaha omg how odd is that darpa logo. That's just like 'hello, evil nwo organisation here'

I've never really liked facebook that much and thought it was abit odd for some reason. Though i'm sure it's probably no less involved in datamining than any other profile site.

Originally posted by frailty
Sorry if I seem condescending, it is a funny thought. And if they crackdown against free speech or free belief, I will the first one speaking out against it even if does mean taking an extended vacation down in Cuba.

Then I suggest you take a look at how Constitutional Rights have been continually eroded over the past few decades...The Patriot Act alone "bypasses" the whole Bill of Rights. Yes, even your Right to Free Speech & to Petition the Government for Redress of Grievances has been rendered useless...Check out here to see how People can expect to be ignored for 8 different Petitions that address Constitutional torts. Then it escalates into a court battle over the basic intent of the Right to Petition in the 1st Amendment. Well, the court ruled that the Right to Petition doesn't include the Right to expect any answers or redress...And the battle continues up in court levels, even right up to today. And they're doing it against historical & established court precedence.

Well, they are cracking down against free speech, they have been doing it and are doing it right now!...And you haven't even started speaking out against it yet? There's already a lot of People speaking, so you're already far from being the first in line to do so.

Have you stopped laughing at us "paranoids" yet?

[edit on 16-7-2007 by MidnightDStroyer]

This is like trying to explain to the masses why they shouldn't be thrilled to receive an annual tax return. Interest free loan, huh?

For a brief history of so-called "anonymity" on the world wide web, I recommend the following article on penet.fi and the curious role that Scientology had to play in the ordeal.

I sometimes wonder if people have yet to fully comprehend the true impact the web has had in all aspects of our lives. I think older generations perhaps never plugged in and simply fail to yield to its clutches and the younger generations are simply born into it as if it had always been there. Consider the impact the web has had on commerce in general and the business model, marketing, information retrieval and pattern recognition, data storage, communications and just about everything else and all on the global scale.

Also interesting... maybe... is that while you were told that learning a foreign language such as Spanish or French in high school was a necessity, they forgot to mention that ALL computer language not limited to HTML is very much written in English.

Publius Enigma

Originally posted by WolfofWar

Defenders of the U.S. Constitution against federal government and the UN
Groups of individuals engaging in para-military training
Those who make numerous references to the U.S. Constitution
Those who attempt to police the police
Lone individuals
Rebels
Property rights activists
Environmental and animal rights activists
Members of street gangs
Focused and committed
Team-oriented and disciplined
Familiar with their physical environments
Employ a variety of vehicles and communicate by cell phone, email, or text messaging
Try not to draw attention to themselves
Look like students, tourists, or businesspersons
Travel in a mixed group of men, women, and children
Avoid confrontations with law enforcement

I think that is pretty much describes everyone in the US. Hey maybe they could round us all up and put us in concentration camp and call it the United States of America.

I guess we are all suspect.

They'd use these traits, and probably more, maybe "who read catcher in the rye" is a descriptor to round up "Subversive elements."

Hey I read Catcher in the Rye in high school. I personally thought it was quite a good book. Though I don't think I will be ever actively trying to "catch" anyone from "the rye." I for one think people should catch themselves.

Almost all of the internment camps used in both the German-American, Japanese American, and Italian American, Internments during WWII are all still active, being guarded and upkept.

And...Oh I see, they never tore them down, so that means they are planning to use them. I guess will see. I still don't think it's enough room to hold every person on the planet.

It guess it is a possibility that they may be used in the future, but I guess anything is possible because the exact future is mostly unknown to us. I'll be keeping an open mind knowing that it is a possibility, but I do doubt some sort of crackdown on everything and personal opinion could or would last long and be feasible. Mainly because many people would not stand for it and the government does not have the manpower or resources.

Plus in my old hood in the city of Baltimore, they can't even stop people from smoking marijuana in public, so I don't know how something this widespread would actually work. They even have police cameras and everyone still smokes in public. No drug dealing going on around the cameras though, just out of view of the public driving down the road. I guess it is all about appearences.

This lock down theory just doesn't seem based in reality.

I for one am not too afraid of this happening on a countrywide or global scale. I guess you can say I am "cautiously optimistic" about the future, because I know there are probably going to be some difficult times ahead. I think that may be why they are identifying people that fit many of their criteria to keep their all-seeing eye on them, especially if things hit the fan and there is mass civil unrest.

I guess we'll see.

Originally posted by spectre76
This is like trying to explain to the masses why they shouldn't be thrilled to receive an annual tax return. Interest free loan, huh?

For a brief history of so-called "anonymity" on the world wide web, I recommend the following article on penet.fi and the curious role that Scientology had to play in the ordeal.

I sometimes wonder if people have yet to fully comprehend the true impact the web has had in all aspects of our lives. I think older generations perhaps never plugged in and simply fail to yield to its clutches and the younger generations are simply born into it as if it had always been there. Consider the impact the web has had on commerce in general and the business model, marketing, information retrieval and pattern recognition, data storage, communications and just about everything else and all on the global scale.

Also interesting... maybe... is that while you were told that learning a foreign language such as Spanish or French in high school was a necessity, they forgot to mention that ALL computer language not limited to HTML is very much written in English.

Publius Enigma

I agree with the last part ... English is pretty much the main language of international business, affairs and technology. As for Spanish, I can see why thats the case in the US as by 2040 it will be the main language so we might as well learn it as it dosent look like Presidente Jorge Busho has any interest in preserving our country as it is.