Re: [privacy] Pentagon Sets its Sights on Social Networking Sites

[Andrew <andrewwilly () gmail com>]

Fergie wrote:
> New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon's National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and 
> code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on 
> social networks. And it could harness advances in internet technology - specifically the forthcoming "semantic web" 
> championed by the web standards organisation W3C - to combine data from social networking websites with details such 
> as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of 
> individuals.
>   
Social networking? Like Myspace?  That would doom CIA credibility.

An example resulting profile:



Name:        Eugene Headly

Hobbies:    Race car driving, rock guitarist, poet, pilot, cage fighter, 
playing the tuba

Status:        Rich

Age:           17, or 21, or 30

Bank:         First Farmers and Merchants, sub-account of Marge Headly, 
mother

Property:    None

Recent
retail
history  :     EB Games

Notes:        Harvested social data combined with public records 
indicate Mr. Headly is an American secret agent  employed at a Dairy 
Queen on Route 7.  He is involved in a serious, sexual relationship with 
a cheerleader from a nearby town, name unknown.  Mr. Headly filed taxes 
under his guardian's ID last year, reporting $1,300 in income, but 
apparently earned another 1.6 million as a film producer and 
professional skateboarder.

Agency Summary:  Mr. Headly's intimate knowledge of the deadly art of 
kung-fu constitutes a serious threat.  Recommend surveillance.







Andrew

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