must … delete …. facebook profile [udpated]

Facebook came after my time, and I learned better before getting entirely sucked into that. Ok scratch that.  I had a change of heart recently on this issue. I created a facebook app just for 1776now.org.  I don’t like using it for personal stuff but it can be useful for networking.

Friendster and Myspace were scary enough but Facebook’s ever-changing privacy agreement and DARPA/CIA connections have taken social data mining to a new level.  It would hardly be a surprise if every last bit of private data in all all our social network profiles were being integrated into Main Core.

When pondering the privacy implications of social networking, I envision a scenario where an Orwellian pre-crime system has determined that you are at risk of committing a crime, or some non-crime that you have “committed” in the past (blogging) retroactively becomes a crime, and the government uses private info from your social network sites to hunt you down.

I’m having a “Turn on, tune in, drop out” hippie moment.  For those of you saying “I’ve got nothing to hide, thus no reason to worry about having my private info on social networks.”  I wish I could tell you a story about being caught up in some drama, thru no fault of my own, and having my Myspace profile analyzed by a cop posing as a reporter.  But I’m no longer naiive enough to post private things in public places.

I’ve got nothing to hide… therefore the government has got no f’ing business accessing my private information.

Related:
Report: Facebook caught sharing secret data with advertisers (Ars Technica)

Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Wikipedia)