Storm™
Field Bee
Hi,
A few months ago and very publicly the head of a website called Wikileaks was arrested and is under house arrest. The details can be found in most major news websites. As you may be aware the US government (as it was mainly them that were exposed in certain recent links) have launched a smear campaign agains the site owner and as a consequence anyone else who is linked/involved with them. Thats the basics. During the US governments investogations they hit upon the idea that maybe there were more people/info out there to be had if they investigated social networks. One such was Twitter. Over the last few weeks the governmental legal body decided they would subpoena Twitter site owners for all info regarding wikileaks. Part of the legal writ was that Twitter were not permitted to disclose the fact that they had been subpoenad and Twitter were ordered to keep this secret. Last week they fought this detail of the subpoena and it was overturned as unlawful. So it became public. The info that the US government want is apparently tweets/followers details/posts/real names/addresses/phone numbers and full contact details and all manor personal info pertaining to those that volunteered their time to help the Wikileaks organisation. This includes a government minister for I think it was Finland.
Uproar ensued as it became apparent that they may also demand the details of any who followed wikileaks on Twitter. This is has been denied by the US Government but as Julian Asanges barrister put it - its clear from the subpoena that it is all and anyone associated with Wikileaks and and any info held on Twitters servers going back to 2009. In my opinion a clear invasion of your privacy. When this story broke it was obvious that as Wikileaks also has dealings with Facebook they had probably been subpoenad too. They have been asked this and have declined to answer. So thats a yes then.
Today I received an alert from a friend regarding privacy on Facebook. As I dont have an account on facebook it does not affect me but may be of interest to others. It was posted on twitter and I will copy and past it here:
Facebook ALERT As of today, New Privacy setting called "Instant Personalization" go into effect. The new settings shares data
with non-Facebook websites & it is AUTOMATICALLY set to "Enabled".
Go to Account>Privacy Settings>Applications & Websites>Instant Personalization>Edit Settings & uncheck "Enable".
BTW If your friends don't do this, they will be sharing information about you as well. PLEASE COPY & PASTE
Me again - so I have no idea what any of that means, as I said I dont have facebook but obviously that sounds dodgy. And so therefore sharing that info here. But it goes to show that despite your privacy assured sites, its clear that with a swipe of the law cloth it can be demanded. And the outcome of this will of course set the tone for not only social networking sites but forums too. Watch what you say folks lol.
A few months ago and very publicly the head of a website called Wikileaks was arrested and is under house arrest. The details can be found in most major news websites. As you may be aware the US government (as it was mainly them that were exposed in certain recent links) have launched a smear campaign agains the site owner and as a consequence anyone else who is linked/involved with them. Thats the basics. During the US governments investogations they hit upon the idea that maybe there were more people/info out there to be had if they investigated social networks. One such was Twitter. Over the last few weeks the governmental legal body decided they would subpoena Twitter site owners for all info regarding wikileaks. Part of the legal writ was that Twitter were not permitted to disclose the fact that they had been subpoenad and Twitter were ordered to keep this secret. Last week they fought this detail of the subpoena and it was overturned as unlawful. So it became public. The info that the US government want is apparently tweets/followers details/posts/real names/addresses/phone numbers and full contact details and all manor personal info pertaining to those that volunteered their time to help the Wikileaks organisation. This includes a government minister for I think it was Finland.
Uproar ensued as it became apparent that they may also demand the details of any who followed wikileaks on Twitter. This is has been denied by the US Government but as Julian Asanges barrister put it - its clear from the subpoena that it is all and anyone associated with Wikileaks and and any info held on Twitters servers going back to 2009. In my opinion a clear invasion of your privacy. When this story broke it was obvious that as Wikileaks also has dealings with Facebook they had probably been subpoenad too. They have been asked this and have declined to answer. So thats a yes then.
Today I received an alert from a friend regarding privacy on Facebook. As I dont have an account on facebook it does not affect me but may be of interest to others. It was posted on twitter and I will copy and past it here:
Facebook ALERT As of today, New Privacy setting called "Instant Personalization" go into effect. The new settings shares data
with non-Facebook websites & it is AUTOMATICALLY set to "Enabled".
Go to Account>Privacy Settings>Applications & Websites>Instant Personalization>Edit Settings & uncheck "Enable".
BTW If your friends don't do this, they will be sharing information about you as well. PLEASE COPY & PASTE
Me again - so I have no idea what any of that means, as I said I dont have facebook but obviously that sounds dodgy. And so therefore sharing that info here. But it goes to show that despite your privacy assured sites, its clear that with a swipe of the law cloth it can be demanded. And the outcome of this will of course set the tone for not only social networking sites but forums too. Watch what you say folks lol.
