Government snooping on Facebook

Mangelwurzel

Mangelwurzel

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From 6th April the UK government have the power to monitor all activity on social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace.
All under the blanket of terrorism and crime prevention.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7962631.stm


Firstly, if i want to share an image of my kids with friends and family. It should only be seen by my friends and family. Nobody else has the right to view that picture without my consent!

Secondly, who is looking at and storing this data? Lets not forget the governments impeccable ability to keep private information confidential!

Thirdly, i'm sick of the government bringing in laws under the terrorism act. Last year we saw the UK government launch anti-terrorism law against Iceland of all countries in order to ease economic trouble. Also on Monday 16th february 2009 we saw new laws on photography in public places preventing photos of police officers or any building showing CCTV camera locations (try taking a photo in any high street which doesn't have a CCTV camera)!
Last summer i got questioned by police for taking this photo. It's a technically crap photo, but perfectly innocent and because of that i've done very little street photography since.

We've all laughed at the conspiracy theorists who declare the 911 attacks were masterminded by the US government to create fear and panic in order to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Whether it's true or not these same fears are being taken advantage of in order for the government to pretty much do what they want.
The UK is turning into a police state!

Thats's my view, what's your view?
 
Hardly surprising, one of the venture capital companies behind Facebook is directly owned by the CIA ;)
 
Mangelwurzel said:
The UK is turning into a police state!

Thats's my view, what's your view?
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It's been going on for years. My only surprise is the general public don't seem too fussed by it all... What the public does get wind of and manages to bring to a halt, the government usually repackages the "scheme" and just tries again at a later date until it gets the result it wants.

Am I worried? Sure, but i'll be dead and buried before it reaches a point where it intrudes into my life to a point i can't tolerate. I do fear for future generations, but the future is theirs anyway. Me? i'll just make sure my pipe and slipper years are spent in a warm location with a pub that doesn't eject smokers outside (not that i smoke any longer, but it's the thought that counts) :lol:
 
Facebook is just a symptom.
I notice that the home secretary (Suspicious character if you ask me anyway) is getting the 'Anti Terror' budget increased from 2.5 to 3.2 billion in the next 18 months. This week alongside the budget increase report the papers quoted the home secretary as saying 'dirty bombs are the next big thing for terrorists' - good way to worry joe public and gloss over the fact we are spending too much on 'Anti Terror'.
I would love to see the 'Anti Terror' spending in detail.

Do I think the government motives are to make it a police state with limited civil rights? No. Do I think that somewhere along the line we will end up in exactly that state. Yes.
 
I think the government is conciously using anti-terror laws to squash dissent though. Look at the way they re-wrote the definition of terrorism to include pretty much all effective forms of non-violent direct action protest (ie anything causing damage or disruption to business or government) Look at the way they used anti-terror laws to squash protest at the Labour confidence with the ink barely dry on their solemn assurances that these laws would not be misused.
 
I am 40 and its been a long time since I worried about things that I cannot change.

I may not agree with some things but life is to short to be worried about everything.
 
Why worry about the government looking a Face book, we don't all have an account.

What you should be worrying about is that this is just another part of the act were they are getting a list of ALL your emails, text message, and telephone calls.

I don't have Facebook but can see the government arresting all sorts of innocent people, due to indirect contact lists.

Your contact list has Joe
Joe chats to Fred
Fred chats to Bill
Bill chat to Bob
Bob chat to Charlie
Charlie chat to Abdul
Abdul chat to Hussain
Hussain visit a terror website

Your arrested for being in the terrorists circle of contacts.





The home secretary comments about dirty bombs was ridiculous, yes terrorist want dirty bombs, they always have, this does not mean they are anywhere near getting them, I want to win the lotto, but have not bought the Aston yet.



The trouble with this country is the general attitude of "It's politics how boring" were people just don't want to know how OUR money is being spent and what laws are being created.

I have a white college at work who thought the 42 days detention was a good thing to catch all these terrorist, until his white son was wrongly arrested and his car impounded., now he has change his mind and can see what I'd been going on about and how wrong the 42 days is.
 
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Every thing is monitored online these days, one reason id dont use things facebook.
 
internet.jpg
 
Mangelwurzel said:
Firstly, if i want to share an image of my kids with friends and family. It should only be seen by my friends and family. Nobody else has the right to view that picture without my consent!
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Why the hell put them on FB then?!? You have signed over your copyright so they can do whatever they want with them - even sell them to private parties.
 
Cant understand why people are getting so worried. If you havent done anything naughty then they wont bother monitoring you surely? It sounds like it will only be names that 'crop up' that they will put the money into investigating on FB etc etc etc?
 
smoothedit said:
Cant understand why people are getting so worried. If you havent done anything naughty then they wont bother monitoring you surely? It sounds like it will only be names that 'crop up' that they will put the money into investigating on FB etc etc etc?
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Thats not really the issue, the issue is where it will end.. If you have nothing to hide you won't mind a camera pointed at your house, or a listening device in your car maybe a tracking device planted in your anus.. :naughty: hows that sound?

I know what your thinking, people wont except it .. Well they will, because they will be to terrified. People wont realise their basic freedoms are slipping away until they lose it.

And I'm not a conspiracy nut, I don't believe these Alex Jones types but I do believe the Government are taking advantage of the current climate of fear. A chance for them to take more control.

As far as I'm concerned the more we fear terrorism the more the terrorist win, with every law that passes they win a battle. There is no life without freedom.
 
smoothedit said:
Cant understand why people are getting so worried. If you havent done anything naughty then they wont bother monitoring you surely?
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JustJoe is right.
The main aim is to create a database with everyone's name, email address, website etc etc.
But what next? Start to cross reference your family with photos from FB? Build up character profiles based on your status updates?
I've never so much as got a speeding ticket but that doesn't mean i'm not worried about invasion of my privacy. This sort of data collection is just wrong.

People that aren't bothered by this are the same people that use Tesco clubcards. The clubcard offers make you think you're saving money, but in reality they log what you buy then send you offers based on that information to get you to buy more. You don't get the same vouchers that Fred Bloggs next door gets :bonk:
 
smoothedit said:
Cant understand why people are getting so worried. If you havent done anything naughty then they wont bother monitoring you surely? It sounds like it will only be names that 'crop up' that they will put the money into investigating on FB etc etc etc?
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Ugh.. I hate the "If you've done nothing wrong.." argument. That isn't the point. With that attitude, you might as well just hand over all your freedoms, liberty, rights and privacy.

For all you can criticise the USA and American people, they have the right idea about the role of the government.

The last comment in this report hits the nail right on the head.

"How many people were killed by terrorists in the UK last year? Or the year before? Every loss of freedom is a massive victory for the enemy. The biggest threat to our way of life is actually our government and its agencies, scaring us into compliance and acceptance of hitherto unimaginable invasions of privacy. People, wake up."
 
Look at it this way, the government haven't introduced any anti-terror laws that haven't been immediately applied in a way normal people would probably consider to be abusive. Like the use of anti-terror laws against peaceful protesters at the Labour party conference with the ink barely dry on their assurances that those laws wouldn't be used 'inappropriately'.

We're on our way into a period of serious economic hardship and pretty much all of the safety-net that was built up during the post-WW2 period has been removed and we've temporarily been using debt to make up the difference.

Now credit isn't easy to come by, and so if you lose you job because the bankers who our nice government has mortgaged our grandchildren to bail out decline to make the loans that keep business going then there's no safety-net.

In this situation, political dissent is likely to grow, so the government has made sure it has the means at its disposal to classify such dissent as terrorism. Because that makes it really easy to deal with and scares people into not sticking their necks out to protest against being ****-****ed by a bunch of corrupt bankers and politicians.
 
I signed up to facebook a couple of years ago, went in once and felt like that 45 year old bloke in a pub full of teenagers, left and never went back
 
I'm all for maintaining our freedoms, but at the same time if there is the remotest chance that things like this can contribute to the prevention of an atrocity or the bringing to justice of the perpetrators should something occur then I can see the point.

As for this comment:

"How many people were killed by terrorists in the UK last year? Or the year before? Every loss of freedom is a massive victory for the enemy. The biggest threat to our way of life is actually our government and its agencies, scaring us into compliance and acceptance of hitherto unimaginable invasions of privacy. People, wake up."

That's fine (and I'm sure that there were people thinking similarly on July 6th 2005), but if/when something does happen (again) the finger will be pointed at the government and the security services asking why they didn't do more! It can't be both ways. To be fair, I suspect that given the volume of data being talked about and the limited and presumably stretched resources of the security apparatus it is highly unlikely that most of the data in question will ever be looked at. Now, I could be wrong but I suspect that the reality is not like spooks, James Bond, 24 etc and there are no technical solutions that highlight every communication that's suspicious! What it will do is allow a retrospective look at anybody where there is reasonable belief that they may be up to no good. As for the security of the data, well obviously you can never be certain, but if the security services are involved in it then the level of security will be considerably higher than that applied by the muppets at the MOD who keep losing laptops!

And as for the concern that it will be abused by local councils etc, I'd be surprised. Having worked for a local authority they can barely run a modern, stable network, let alone have the kind of computing power to store an analyse that kind of data!

Bottom line for me is that, yes I think we should be cautious, but I do genuinely believe that if you have nothing to hide that threatens national security you have nothing to fear.

Just my opinion though.
 
kh_42 said:
Bottom line for me is that, yes I think we should be cautious, but I do genuinely believe that if you have nothing to hide that threatens national security you have nothing to fear.
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Let the government install microphones and CCTV cameras in your home if that's the case.
 
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welly said:
Let the government install microphones and CCTV cameras in your home if that's the case.
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Hmm, yes - because that's what they're proposing, right? :shake:

The point is that "they" can, quite legally get a warrant and get to any of your Internet comms they want anyway, provided they can provide appropriate evidence to back it up. All this proposal will do is give them access to historical data too - which I guess could be interesting if trying to build a criminal case. If you really believe that EVERYTHING that everyone in Britain does on Facebook etc is going to be monitored in real-time then you've either been assuming that Spooks is a documentary or reading the Daily Mail as if its actually a factual publication.

Why not just try a normal amount of perspective? :thumbs:
Linky if you're interested in the laws governing it.
 
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