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Ever get the feeling that the web is suddenly trying to profile you? Every upvote you make, every comment you leave, every article you read... Until one day the

Ever get the feeling that the web is suddenly trying to profile you? Every upvote you make, every comment you leave, every article you read... Until one day they start knocking on your door for having negative thoughts, being unhappy, being prone to rebellion, not being conformist, or whatever category some data mining app applies to you.

forensic 16y ago
Of course the web is trying to profile you. If it's not Google and their advertisers then it's Facebook and their government friends who plug all your comments into NSA supercomputers to check for terroristy thoughts. We all have profiles in some NSA database somewhere, just waiting to be expunged and used against us when someone important decides we're a Homeland Security threat.
- mkjones 16y ago
  I think you mean "extracted" or "opened," not "expunged" (expunged means sealed or erased, the opposite of what I assume you intend). That being said, I work on anti-abuse systems at Facebook and I'm pretty sure we don't "plug all your comments into NSA supercomputers." What evidence do you have that indicates we do such a thing?
  - paulnelligan 16y ago
    Interesting, my feeling is that we're being profiled, but not for the purpose of homeland security - I mean let's face it, we're not characters from 'minority report' ... I do however feel that our profiles are commodities, and it's very valuable for companies to have this information about us. They sell shit, we buy it ... In any case, it looks like facebook are trying to monopolise the internet, and that in itself is a bad thing ...
  - forensic 16y ago
    I meant exhume actually. You don't need to plug them into the NSA. Since Facebook pays your salary it wouldn't be your job. NSA employees would do all the work. I'm sure they have circumventing the privacy measures down to a well oiled system by now. The NSA loves to illegally wiretap everything. This is their obsession. Justification: all the foreigners who use Facebook being a potential national security threat. All the communication on Facebook (e.g. Egyptian revolution) being invaluable data to CIA analysts. Etcetera. It's naive to think that these agencies don't have large teams focused solely on extracting value from Facebook. Zuckerberg, being the guy with control over everyone's data now, is way too friendly with the various alphabet soup agency heads to believe that Facebook is hindering their never-ending investigations. You don't see FBI directors kissing the feet of Larry and Sergey.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
yeahsure 16y ago
I've become paranoic enough that I pretty much never say online what I really think when it comes to "delicate" topics. It's sad, but I miss the "old" internet days where I felt I was really anonymous and could be as politically-incorrect as I wanted to.

forensic 16y ago

Of course the web is trying to profile you. If it's not Google and their advertisers then it's Facebook and their government friends who plug all your comments into NSA supercomputers to check for terroristy thoughts. We all have profiles in some NSA database somewhere, just waiting to be expunged and used against us when someone important decides we're a Homeland Security threat.

mkjones 16y ago
I think you mean "extracted" or "opened," not "expunged" (expunged means sealed or erased, the opposite of what I assume you intend). That being said, I work on anti-abuse systems at Facebook and I'm pretty sure we don't "plug all your comments into NSA supercomputers." What evidence do you have that indicates we do such a thing?
- paulnelligan 16y ago
  Interesting, my feeling is that we're being profiled, but not for the purpose of homeland security - I mean let's face it, we're not characters from 'minority report' ... I do however feel that our profiles are commodities, and it's very valuable for companies to have this information about us. They sell shit, we buy it ... In any case, it looks like facebook are trying to monopolise the internet, and that in itself is a bad thing ...
- forensic 16y ago
  I meant exhume actually. You don't need to plug them into the NSA. Since Facebook pays your salary it wouldn't be your job. NSA employees would do all the work. I'm sure they have circumventing the privacy measures down to a well oiled system by now. The NSA loves to illegally wiretap everything. This is their obsession. Justification: all the foreigners who use Facebook being a potential national security threat. All the communication on Facebook (e.g. Egyptian revolution) being invaluable data to CIA analysts. Etcetera. It's naive to think that these agencies don't have large teams focused solely on extracting value from Facebook. Zuckerberg, being the guy with control over everyone's data now, is way too friendly with the various alphabet soup agency heads to believe that Facebook is hindering their never-ending investigations. You don't see FBI directors kissing the feet of Larry and Sergey.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

yeahsure 16y ago

I've become paranoic enough that I pretty much never say online what I really think when it comes to "delicate" topics. It's sad, but I miss the "old" internet days where I felt I was really anonymous and could be as politically-incorrect as I wanted to.