Social media and the police.

[Ms. Spam]

Police Searches Of Social Media Face Privacy Pushback

 

From NPR:

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/10/15/498005101/police-searches-of-social-media-face-privacy-pushback?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2041

 

 

Law enforcement is increasingly worried about losing access to powerful tools for searching social media because of changing attitudes at the social media companies that allow the searches.

Earlier this week, Facebook and Twitter restricted the bulk data access to users' information for a company called Geofeedia, after the ACLU of Northern California published a report revealing that Geofeedia had suggested to police departments that they could use the service to track protests.

With what happened with the FBI wanted Apple to unlock the San Bernadino shooters phone/install backdoors for them to access and criminals getting caught based on social media posts, plus HR departments trolling your Facebook posts how do you feel about push back from companies like Apple, Google/Alphabet, Facebook and Twitter giving push back. How private is your social posting?

 

[Marc DuQuesne]

I think it is great that they are making the appearance of pushing back. They sell all that same information to advertisers at the same time though. I personally don't use any form of social media except Nightly.net and assume that anything I post here, shop for online, or email could be compromised be any number of people from identity thieves to law enforcement.

 

You can't depend on those companies to protect your privacy. Their whole business model is built on exploiting it.

[Guest El Chalupacabra]

 

 

How private is your social posting?

The answer is pretty much in that question. Social media is not some private diary or journal. When you post to social media, you don't own the server its going on, and it's for all the world to see. How many dum-dums out there have been fired for posting how they went to the game, when they called off sick, or complained about their a-hole boss, or said something racist that is against company policy? A lot. This is no different.

 

Bottom line is, if you don't want to incriminate yourself, don't blab on social media. It really is that simple.

[Guest]

I'm not sure it is the same. Sharing something on social media is a lot different than the police using GPS data to spy on protestors.

 

I see it as a big difference, mainly because it isn't people posting about crime or even necessarily participating in a crime, and it isn't information that they're intending to provide.

[Ms. Spam]

I think it's interesting in that article that it's the scope of the collecting that makes it bad. The ACLU - if I remember correctly without revisiting the article - is taking issue with the fact that it is writ large data collecting.

 

I guess this would fall under the same freakout I had concerning the Patriot Act and phone record collecting. While I don't do anything but post cat videos on social media and have nothing to incriminate myself with and I am uber careful on the internet, I find the idea of backdoor type things built into devices and large collections of information not quite right. I think it stems from a mistrust of the government and abuse of power being made possible.

[Marc DuQuesne]

I get mad at the stupidest things. I bought an e-book from an online retailer. I instantly got an email and text from 2 other retailers about books by the same author. And the thing that makes me mad is I don't know who to be mad at. The original retailer? Google? fuck me... Nothing is private.