On Wed, 26 Oct 2011, djs wrote: >> They'll know something about web sites I visit, and maybe they'll tell >> the CIA. They'll know about my political attitudes and who my friends >> are. But then what? > > A comprehensive database of citizen's political attitudes and friends > would be immensely beneficial for an authoritarian government attempting > to censor ideas, parties and even people. The threat may seem hyperbolic > right now, but thirty or more or even less years from now, Facebook's > databases could be used to identify 'innocent' civilians as 'opposition' > -- for simply being friends with somebody twenty years ago, even if they > haven't communicated with them in over twenty years. I don't intend to > sound like a conspiracy theorist, but the scenario I describe as a > response to "But then what?" seems, to me, like a practical, > cost-effective solution for any government or entity attempting to > preserve power and curb dissent. I'm not sure why some social networks > log *all* activity of user's Friends List, because a couple well-placed > subpoenas or (il)legal confiscations of server equipment would give any > tyrannical regime more than enough information to persecute its critics > and prevent an opposing political party from forming and communicating. Couldn't this hypothetical tyrranical government see your posting on TCLUG and think that you are a threat? I don't think that hiding who I am from the world is a good way to defend myself against the possibility that some future "regime" that doesn't like people like me will find me. In the meantime -- tyrranical regimes around the world are not mining Facebook, they are blocking it. The reason is that people like me who do not like tyrranical regimes are able to use Facebook to get our messages out there. We circumvent traditional and state media sources and create opportunities to organize. Facebook played an important role in the Arab Spring protest movement and in the Occupy movement. So it could be that the current reality is acting in the opposite direction of your hypothetical future by reducing the probability that any such tyrranical regime will be able to take power in the USA. I have gotten a lot out of Facebook. I "friend" people with similar scientific and political interests and their postings have introduced me to a lot of really important things that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. The Occupy Wall Street movement was one of those things -- it was on Facebook for a few weeks before I heard a word in mainsteam media, and if it weren't for Facebook, it is possible that mainstream media still wouldn't be covering Occupy Wall Street. In other words, Facebook plays a role in dictating which events are fit for our news media. Mike