Facebook

Gordon

http://albumoftheday.com/facebook/

It's not a Youtube video but a Flash based text/animation. Whether or not there is truth in it, it certainly raises some awareness of what you do with your information.

r3nu4l

Well I've always worried about Facebook applications. Every time a user installs a new application they allow that application to hold and use their Facebook details. That's crazy!

Here's an example of a problem caused very recently by Facebooks privacy settings!

Basically, if you shopped online using Beacon, Beacon told people in your friends list what you had viewed and bought! In the run-up to the Christmas season this caused a lot of problems for some users.

Gordon

Aye, that beacon thing is what I read on Slashdot where I saw this link.

r3nu4l

Well as for the theory that the CIA get Facebook data...that wouldn't surprise me in the least. It would be fairly simple for anyone with nefarious intent to write a fun application that gets shared widely around Facebook users and gathers data.

I tend to use as few applications as possible and some of the data I put in my profile is totally incorrect...just to help throw off any potential ID thieves

humanji

Meh, just more scaremongering. If the CIA want your information, there's easier ways than to hope you're not lying when you fill in your facebook page. Plus, the CIA are branched out and associated with thousands of companies. Assuming that everyone of these companies is there just to get your details is paranoid and thinking yourself more important than you are. They've better things to be doing with there time (ie setting up their listening devices at the Christmas Beers!)

Oracle

They've changed that Beacon service: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7130349.stm

TBH, at least half of that was explaining how all of this had been stated in their terms and conditions, so its not like they weren't doing anything they hadn't told us about.

And, also, anyone who posts really personal information on the internet (even if its just viewabale by friends) is being a bit of an idiot.

Kernel

There is a conspiracy theory which believes that the entire internet was rolled out to 'the people' as a method to gather information and intelligence on people, and to more easily control the information which they are allowed to receive. The beauty of such a system would be that we feed the information into the system ourselves. The fact that it was a DARPA programme and the involvement of the CIA in companies like Google and Facebook led to this belief.

http://www.threadwatch.org/node/9612
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2006/061206seedmoney.htm

The counter argument for this, of course, is that the internet is one of the most free and accessible forms of communication ever to exist (perhaps it grew faster than anticipated by the powers that be?).

Having said that, I do believe that cointelpro has advanced greatly to monitor and control the internet over recent years.