US Leads The World In Government Requests For Facebook Data

Discussion in 'Politics Discussion' started by Rainman, Nov 13, 2015.

  1. Rainman

    Rainman Senior Investor

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    Privacy on the net? Uncle Sam doesn't value your privacy. If you truly want privacy then stay away from Facebook.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-leads-world-government-requests-182853807.html
    So far this year, U.S authorities have asked Facebook for user data 17,577 times. In 2014, 15,433 requests for user data were made. Disturbing if you ask me. Next year it will be over 20,000 requests for user data. Facebook users, think it's OK for FB to hand over your data and content you've posted on the site to authorities?
     
  2. pwarbi

    pwarbi Senior Investor

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    To be honest it doesn't really bother me that much, as anything I share on Facebook I see as being in the public domain anyway and I've nothing to hide.

    I know some people might not want the government prying in to their business and I agree that people do have a right to privacy, but if that's the case, don't put it all over social media then.
     
  3. Rainman

    Rainman Senior Investor

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    I agree that if one doesn't want something they post anywhere on the net to be used against them by anyone or any institution they shouldn't.

    However I do believe that social media will make it a lot easier for governments to suppress free speech even on the internet. If whatever you post online can be used against you in a court of law then though in some way it's good because those who used to bully others via social media will be caught easily, what if someone posts something which the government doesn't like?
     
  4. ScooterBrandon

    ScooterBrandon Senior Investor

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    I wish I could say that I am surprised, but I am not.
    Hopefully everyone knows that anything they put on FB is pretty much public domain.

    What really bothers me is when people plaster up thousands of pictures of children, children who are too young to conscent to their pictures getting uploaded to the internet.
    In ten years we will have a whole generation who has grown up unwillingly sharing every moment of their lives online.

    Call me old fashioned but I think somethings are best left private.
     
  5. L_B

    L_B Well-Known Member

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    I am not really surprised by this either. When you post anything online you do so knowing that it is forever out there. I hope people do realize that now. I must say though I am surprised by some of the things that I see people posting and saying on Facebook. May people have lost their jobs because of things they posted on Facebook. People have to think before they post.
     
  6. kgord

    kgord Senior Investor

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    Well, I don't do anything on Facebook that I would be afraid of anyone looking at, so if they want to request my info that is fine. I have privacy settings on my account so I don't think that anyone is going to get anything too exciting by looking at my account. Zuckerberg said that he couldn't believe the stupidity of Facebook users handing over all kinds of personal data because Facebook asks for it...Sounds like the arrogant SOB he is, if he is really concerned about people's safety...don't ask for it!
     
  7. Alex

    Alex Senior Investor

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    These days, assume anything you post or even email to someone may be recorded somehow, somewhere and read by an unauthorized source. When Facebook first came out I was happy to post thoughts and photos, but then when people starting stealing information and abusing it, I shut it all down. I don't allow anyone to post on my wall, all my information is either only for me, or a slight variation of the truth.

    Even if they government has the data, it's not proof as many people lie on their profiles and if it is private and not shared, can they use that as evidence?
     
  8. petesede

    petesede Guest

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    To be fair, the USA probably has way more facebook users than any other country.

    I should also like to point out that I caused one of those instances :) not going to go into the details, but as part of an investigation on my behalf, the ´official scripts´ of a chat message were subpeoned. In this case, it was done to protect me from a blackmailer. The person who attempted to blackmail me basically said in a facebook chat message that it was blackmail, and that it was a lie. So they subpeoned the official chat messages, and that was that, arrest warrant issued.

    The bigger picture though is that people should not be angry with the FBI, police or law enforcement if they think their privacy rights are being violated, the problem would be with the judges who grant the subpoenas. It is the JOB of the police to try to get every piece of information they can, it is the job of the judges to determine which requests for information are reasonable and constitutional.

    I also think because of terrorism, judges are a little more lenient. Nobody wants to be the judge who denied a subpeona and it later turned out the information requested could have stopped a major terror attack. And of course police know that, so try to use terrorist links whenever possible. cat n mouse
     
  9. nissi

    nissi Well-Known Member

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    I don't understand why they need to, they already have enough date on each US citizen. They know everything about us. We already don't have privacy and it's been that way for a long time. I guess Facebook is just an easy way for them to keep up on what we think about the things of the world going on right now. They have an inside look on our own opinions ad how we think. That's about all I can think of.
     
  10. crimsonghost747

    crimsonghost747 Senior Investor

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    17577 times. That's probably less than one thousandth of a percentage of the stuff that facebook has. If you are willing to give your stuff to Facebook, a company that you KNOW uses it for advertising revenue, why are you afraid of them turning over a tiny tiny portion the the government on special request?
     

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