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FacebookIsDangerous 15 - 08 Apr 2012 - Main.HarryKhanna
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="LawContempSoc" |
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Facebook is Dangerous
I ran into this article where Eben describes Facebook as analgous to a "man in the middle" attack that a hacker might employ to intercept apparently private communication for nefarious purposes. I think Eben's analogy is spot on: this isn't a technical hack, this is a social hack, and it amazes me how oblivious we are to the increasing damage Facebook is inflicting on our privacy and the danger it can pose to people who are deemed "criminals" wanted by law enforcement. | | | People keep getting this wrong. It's not about what you place on the internet. It's about where you go, what you look at, how long you look at it. What you intentionally place on the internet is trivial compared to information on the profiles you looked at, the photos you spent the most time on and the people that were tagged in them. | |
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< | Obviously, I acknowledge the critical importance of metadata, but could you please help me understand how the metadata that social media sites collect is meaningfully different and potentially more pernicious than that which is already collected about people through other means? Hasn't my ISP (Columbia, Comcast, AOL, Compuserve, or even Prodigy) been able to track all of my online behavior since before my middle school friends were using their parent's dialup connection to download Metallica's greatest hits from Napster and potentially spending a few minutes considering whether to download Wierd Al's coolest jams on the side? | >
> | Obviously, I acknowledge the critical importance of metadata, but could you please help me understand how the metadata that social media sites collect is meaningfully different and potentially more pernicious than that which is already collected about people through other means? Hasn't my ISP (Columbia, Comcast, AOL, Compuserve, or even Prodigy) been able to track all of my online behavior since before my middle school friends were using their parent's dialup connection to download Metallica's greatest hits from Napster and potentially spending a few minutes considering whether to download Wierd Al's coolest jams on the side?
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< | That's the real interesting information that is being collected about you, not the fact that you listed Twilight as your favorite movie. | >
> | Two major differences: 1) the lack of ability for ISPs to inspect the content of transmissions on a large scale, and 2) your ability to protect yourself with SSL encryption.
First, by default, your ISP only tracks and logs the address (location) of everyone's transmissions, not the content of those transmissions. It can track the content but it is difficult for an ISP to do that on a large scale since it involves processor-intensive packet-sniffing. If your ISP was targeting you specifically, I have no doubt they could discover the content of your transmissions, unless you encrypted them (discussed shortly). But it is simply not realistic for an ISP to eavesdrop on the content of everyone's internet usage simultaneously. Facebook does not have this limitation. It does not need to resort to packet sniffing since you are accessing it's domain and it can easily match the location of your transmission to the content. It knows that www.facebook.com/profile=1234420 is Kieran's profile since it designed the URL matching scheme. It knows how long you spent on Kieran's page since the asynchronous Javascript on the page is in constant communication with Facebook's servers. Your ISP does not have these shortcuts and must inspect the content of every packet you send to get a meaningful idea of what you're doing on the internet. It can do it, but it cannot do it for everyone at once. Therein lies the danger of Facebook: it can record all this information about everyone at once, and it does.
Second, when you access your bank or, say, Gmail, your communication is encrypted through something called SSL. That means it is mathematically very, very difficult for an ISP to snoop on your communication to discover what you are doing on that website. It knows roughly what domains you're accessing (e.g. bankofamerica.com) but it cannot decrypt the content that's been sent to your browser. It cannot discover your bank balance, since the information is garbled by encryption until reaches your web browser on your computer, outside the eyes of the ISP. Again, Facebook has no such limitation. It should be obvious why: it is not a third party relaying information like your ISP is, it is actually the server you're communicating with. It knows what it's sending you, even if it encrypts it before sending it.
| | | Nevertheless, I was still shocked by the vast scale of information provided in this social-media subpoena that the Boston Police Department delivered to Facebook in the course of their investigation of the "Craigslist Killer." Facebook handed over lists with lists of the suspect's friends, IP logins, photos, tags, and messages. Given that facebook won't acknowledge how many subpoenas they've responded too, we have no way of knowing how often domestic law enforcement or other less savory entities are pouring through our social data.
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FacebookIsDangerous 14 - 08 Apr 2012 - Main.KieranCoe
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="LawContempSoc" |
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Facebook is Dangerous
I ran into this article where Eben describes Facebook as analgous to a "man in the middle" attack that a hacker might employ to intercept apparently private communication for nefarious purposes. I think Eben's analogy is spot on: this isn't a technical hack, this is a social hack, and it amazes me how oblivious we are to the increasing damage Facebook is inflicting on our privacy and the danger it can pose to people who are deemed "criminals" wanted by law enforcement. | | | I think that dialogue about this issue might be furthered if we had a tangible example of what the police or other government entities can access by subpoenaing facebook for information about you. As a technological novice, I often have trouble conceptualizing the scope of the information that users casually handover both intentionally or unintentionally. As Abiola and Sanjay point out, many of us know that nothing we place on the internet is truly private. | |
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< | People keep getting this wrong. It's not about what you place on the internet. It's about where you go, what you look at, how long you look at it. What you intentionally place on the internet is trivial compared to information on the profiles you looked at, the photos you spent the most time on and the people that were tagged in them. That's the real interesting information that is being collected about you, not the fact that you listed Twilight as your favorite movie. | >
> | People keep getting this wrong. It's not about what you place on the internet. It's about where you go, what you look at, how long you look at it. What you intentionally place on the internet is trivial compared to information on the profiles you looked at, the photos you spent the most time on and the people that were tagged in them. | | | | |
<
< | Nevertheless, I was still shocked by the vast scale of information provided in this social-media subpoena that the Boston Police Department delivered to Facebook in the course of their investigation of the "Craigslist Killer." Facebook handed over lists with lists of the suspect's friends, IP logins, photos, tags, and messages. Given that facebook won't acknowledge how many subpoenas they've responded too, we have no way of knowing how often domestic law enforcement or other less savory entities are pouring through our social data. | >
> | Obviously, I acknowledge the critical importance of metadata, but could you please help me understand how the metadata that social media sites collect is meaningfully different and potentially more pernicious than that which is already collected about people through other means? Hasn't my ISP (Columbia, Comcast, AOL, Compuserve, or even Prodigy) been able to track all of my online behavior since before my middle school friends were using their parent's dialup connection to download Metallica's greatest hits from Napster and potentially spending a few minutes considering whether to download Wierd Al's coolest jams on the side?
That's the real interesting information that is being collected about you, not the fact that you listed Twilight as your favorite movie.
Nevertheless, I was still shocked by the vast scale of information provided in this social-media subpoena that the Boston Police Department delivered to Facebook in the course of their investigation of the "Craigslist Killer." Facebook handed over lists with lists of the suspect's friends, IP logins, photos, tags, and messages. Given that facebook won't acknowledge how many subpoenas they've responded too, we have no way of knowing how often domestic law enforcement or other less savory entities are pouring through our social data. | | | Source:
When the cops subpoena your Facebook information, here's what Facebook sends the cops |
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FacebookIsDangerous 13 - 08 Apr 2012 - Main.HarryKhanna
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="LawContempSoc" |
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Facebook is Dangerous
I ran into this article where Eben describes Facebook as analgous to a "man in the middle" attack that a hacker might employ to intercept apparently private communication for nefarious purposes. I think Eben's analogy is spot on: this isn't a technical hack, this is a social hack, and it amazes me how oblivious we are to the increasing damage Facebook is inflicting on our privacy and the danger it can pose to people who are deemed "criminals" wanted by law enforcement. | | | -- RumbidzaiMaweni - 01 Apr 2012 | |
<
< | I think that dialogue about this issue might be furthered if we had a tangible example of what the police or other government entities can access by subpoenaing facebook for information about you. As a technological novice, I often have trouble conceptualizing the scope of the information that users casually handover both intentionally or unintentionally. As Abiola and Sanjay point out, many of us know that nothing we place on the internet is truly private. Nevertheless, I was still shocked by the vast scale of information provided in this social-media subpoena that the Boston Police Department delivered to Facebook in the course of their investigation of the "Craigslist Killer." Facebook handed over lists with lists of the suspect's friends, IP logins, photos, tags, and messages. Given that facebook won't acknowledge how many subpoenas they've responded too, we have no way of knowing how often domestic law enforcement or other less savory entities are pouring through our social data. | >
> | I think that dialogue about this issue might be furthered if we had a tangible example of what the police or other government entities can access by subpoenaing facebook for information about you. As a technological novice, I often have trouble conceptualizing the scope of the information that users casually handover both intentionally or unintentionally. As Abiola and Sanjay point out, many of us know that nothing we place on the internet is truly private.
People keep getting this wrong. It's not about what you place on the internet. It's about where you go, what you look at, how long you look at it. What you intentionally place on the internet is trivial compared to information on the profiles you looked at, the photos you spent the most time on and the people that were tagged in them. That's the real interesting information that is being collected about you, not the fact that you listed Twilight as your favorite movie.
Nevertheless, I was still shocked by the vast scale of information provided in this social-media subpoena that the Boston Police Department delivered to Facebook in the course of their investigation of the "Craigslist Killer." Facebook handed over lists with lists of the suspect's friends, IP logins, photos, tags, and messages. Given that facebook won't acknowledge how many subpoenas they've responded too, we have no way of knowing how often domestic law enforcement or other less savory entities are pouring through our social data. | | | Source:
When the cops subpoena your Facebook information, here's what Facebook sends the cops |
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FacebookIsDangerous 12 - 07 Apr 2012 - Main.KieranCoe
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="LawContempSoc" |
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Facebook is Dangerous
I ran into this article where Eben describes Facebook as analgous to a "man in the middle" attack that a hacker might employ to intercept apparently private communication for nefarious purposes. I think Eben's analogy is spot on: this isn't a technical hack, this is a social hack, and it amazes me how oblivious we are to the increasing damage Facebook is inflicting on our privacy and the danger it can pose to people who are deemed "criminals" wanted by law enforcement. | | | I realize whether Facebook and similar forms of social networking can be useful is a different question from whether or not Facebook is dangerous from a privacy perspective. I just wish those who frame the debate would more often acknowledge that there are real and immediate positive social interests at stake, beyond 20-somethings wanting to show off their party pictures, that contribute to the complacency some people feel regarding these potential long-term consequences. Maybe if those championing internet privacy gave more credit to those who really do want to find a way to balance behavior in the cyber-realm that contributes to certain positive ends with making a stand for internet re-empowerment, it would go a long way towards making people wake up.
-- RumbidzaiMaweni - 01 Apr 2012
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>
> | I think that dialogue about this issue might be furthered if we had a tangible example of what the police or other government entities can access by subpoenaing facebook for information about you. As a technological novice, I often have trouble conceptualizing the scope of the information that users casually handover both intentionally or unintentionally. As Abiola and Sanjay point out, many of us know that nothing we place on the internet is truly private. Nevertheless, I was still shocked by the vast scale of information provided in this social-media subpoena that the Boston Police Department delivered to Facebook in the course of their investigation of the "Craigslist Killer." Facebook handed over lists with lists of the suspect's friends, IP logins, photos, tags, and messages. Given that facebook won't acknowledge how many subpoenas they've responded too, we have no way of knowing how often domestic law enforcement or other less savory entities are pouring through our social data.
Source:
When the cops subpoena your Facebook information, here's what Facebook sends the cops
-- KieranCoe - 07 Apr 2012 | | | \ No newline at end of file |
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FacebookIsDangerous 11 - 02 Apr 2012 - Main.RumbidzaiMaweni
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="LawContempSoc" |
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Facebook is Dangerous
I ran into this article where Eben describes Facebook as analgous to a "man in the middle" attack that a hacker might employ to intercept apparently private communication for nefarious purposes. I think Eben's analogy is spot on: this isn't a technical hack, this is a social hack, and it amazes me how oblivious we are to the increasing damage Facebook is inflicting on our privacy and the danger it can pose to people who are deemed "criminals" wanted by law enforcement. | | | The author of the article encourages readers to see the application as instructive regarding internet privacy and protecting ourselves on social networking sites like Facebook. | |
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< | I, too, like Skylar feel like I've been letting much of this discourse about privacy and the internet pass me by. As Moglen mentioned in class the other day, it very much has been this passive "If I'm not doing anything wrong, what does it matter," attitude on my part. But I also grow frustrated when I try to discuss this topic with people who are adamantly anti-Facebook and other forms of social-networking, because I often do feel that users of these platforms are not given enough credit. I also get the impression that these people assume that Facebook's only uses are for stalking friends and colleagues as entertainment, curing boredom, or for narcissistic, superficial over-sharing. There's little acknowledgement of what a powerful form of community-building it can be, or that our ideas of what imaginary communities we are a part of, and can be active in, has largely shifted as a consequence of these networks. I've long been interested in migration and diaspora communities, and social networking has drastically changed the way people in diaspora communities perceive themselves and their communities. It's not merely the ease of keeping in touch that's important- it is that act of sharing daily thoughts and experiences that's extremely powerful from the perspective of identity formation, remittances, empathy-building, and even planting the seeds for activism. | >
> | I, too, like Skylar feel like I've been letting much of this discourse about privacy and the internet pass me by. As Moglen mentioned in class the other day, it very much has been this passive "If I'm not doing anything wrong, what does it matter," attitude on my part. But I also grow frustrated when I try to discuss this topic with people who are adamantly anti-Facebook and other forms of social-networking, because I often do feel that users of these platforms are not given enough credit. I also get the impression that these people assume that Facebook's only uses are for stalking friends and colleagues as entertainment, curing boredom, or for narcissistic, superficial over-sharing. There's little acknowledgement of what a powerful form of community-building it can be, or that our ideas of what imaginary communities we are a part of, and can be active in, has largely shifted as a consequence of these networks. I've long been interested in migration and diaspora communities, and social networking has drastically changed the way people in diaspora communities perceive themselves and their communities. It's not merely the ease of keeping in touch that's important- it is that act of sharing seemingly unimportant daily thoughts and experiences that is extremely powerful from the perspective of identity formation, remittances, empathy-building, and even planting the seeds of activism. | | | I realize whether Facebook and similar forms of social networking can be useful is a different question from whether or not Facebook is dangerous from a privacy perspective. I just wish those who frame the debate would more often acknowledge that there are real and immediate positive social interests at stake, beyond 20-somethings wanting to show off their party pictures, that contribute to the complacency some people feel regarding these potential long-term consequences. Maybe if those championing internet privacy gave more credit to those who really do want to find a way to balance behavior in the cyber-realm that contributes to certain positive ends with making a stand for internet re-empowerment, it would go a long way towards making people wake up. |
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