Man, have I been on a conspiracy kick lately. Timing is strange. I published my exposé on Facebook, then it broke that the NSA was spying with no balance of power. Since then it has been one thing after another, making my first few entries on this blog all about possible conspiracies.
Well, today a couple of interesting tid-bits hit the web.
1. Data Mining 101: Finding Subversives with Amazon Wishlists:
Amazon wishlists lets anyone bookmark books for later purchase. By default these lists are public and available to anybody who searches by name. If the wishlist creator specifies a shipping address, someone else can even purchase the book on Amazon and have it shipped directly as a gift. The wishlist creator’s city and state are made public on the wishlist, but the street address remains private. Amazon’s popularity has created a vast database of wishlists. No index of all wishlists is available, but it remains possible to view all wishlists by people of a particular first name. A recent search for people named Mark returned 124,887 publicly viewable wishlists.
For an all inclusive search by name, you could compile a comprehensive list of first names and nicknames from the baby names databases available on the internet. Armed with this list, and by recording the search results for each first name, it is possible for you to retrieve the vast majority of public wishlists on Amazon.
2. Trent Lapinksi’s ‘MySpace Report’, a culmination of various research he’s been doing to answer the question “Who is running MySpace?”. See also, The Truth about MySpace and Why Doesn’t Anyone Ask Who Actually Runs MySpace?. Apparently Trent has been threatened with legal action in response to his snooping.
I know the site was bought by Fox, but Fox didn’t start the site, plus much of the original staff still appears to be employed. For reasons unknown, no one seems to ask who Tom Anderson is, and most of all no one asks who Chris DeWolfe is (MySpace’s CEO). When I looked into who these guys pasts I found a web of issues ranging from rumors of running porn websites to possible connections to investment fraud. When I simply asked MySpace about these allegations they threatened to sue me.
MySpace is now just over 2 years old and is one of the biggest websites on the internet yet no one knows where or how it came to be. Isn’t it of millions of people’s concern to know who runs the website they confide so much in? Why hasn’t the media or blogosphere asked this question?
This brings me full circle to the problem I see with Facebook and its eerie “privacy” policy. People sign up for things because they are fun and free and never think twice to read the fine print. At best, you’re providing information that can be sold and you might run into a spam problem. Worse, you’re voluntarily indexing your interests and contacts for the easy perusal of security agencies (or, anyone else that is interested).
On that note, I have had a lot of comments and e-mails saying “Who cares?” or “Facebook is just your favorite music!” That simply isn’t true. Facebook has already been used to arrest students for questionable behavior at some colleges. Perhaps most useful to security agencies are the “Party” and “Event” planning features in Facebook. This keeps a calendar of events, linked to all students who have RSVP’d. Many of these events are political in nature (click here for an example).
That said, government spying and data mining will ultimately only affect those who are “up to no good.” But is that the point? How free are we if we are constantly being watched? Not only that, but once we accept surveillance as normal, where will the slippery slope carry us?
5 responses so far ↓
1 DegreeMe // Jan 6, 2006 at 11:08 am
You certainly bring up some interesting points. I hadn’t ever questioned the MySpace thing before, but now it really makes me wonder…
2 April Marie // Jan 8, 2006 at 4:50 pm
I’m not convinced that data mining will ultimately only affect people who are up to no good. I avoid meat, eggs, and dairy. In some high school a while ago (perhaps in Utah? Lots of stuff like this seems to happen there) a kid got suspended for wearing a vegan t-shirt. From what I remember reading it only said the word vegan. The definition of vegan is not eating meat, eggs, or dairy, and most say avoiding honey and some extend that to their clothing buying choices, for example not buying leather. Nothing threatening, right? The only people who would have a stake in not wanting people to follow that lifestyle are those in meat and other animal industries. The authorities said his vegan t-shirt was gang related. From what I remember he was a straight A student and did not exhibit any gang membership behavior by a long shot. They were just being freaking idiots.
Veganism is not a gang. But there could be a point where vegans or any other group are ‘persecuted’ for being ‘against the government’ (possbily groups that are considered to be to the left politically). Are all dissentors up to no good? Of course not. The concept of a democracy is to give people the ability to think for themselves and promote their causes. Dissention is an important part of how our government works.
Anyway.
I’m afraid of RFID chips, too. I don’t know why it would be necessary to take the picture of someone buying a razor intended to cut body hair. I will not mention the company, but I think that’s just plain evil.
Thanks for blogging, it’s interesting reading.
3 April Marie // Jan 8, 2006 at 4:58 pm
Sorry, I posted too fast. This is to be inserted right before “Anyway”:
I think the extreme possibility of all of this is to get to a place where they’re chasing after you for what you’re writing now. Of course it’s hard to believe that the American public would allow that to happen, but with the Patriot Act that seems like not such an impossibility anymore. It’s very scary, actually, what our country is putting up with.
Doesn’t it seem that absolute control with no first amendment rights is what Bush and his supporters are wanting? Just look at their history. Is the Patriot Act patriotic? No, it’s unconstutional trash that goes against everything the US was founded for.
4 Dances With Thesaurus // Jan 8, 2006 at 8:51 pm
I’m one of those people who decided to click on your name under Blogs of Note. I’m really glad I did now. You made me aware of some things that I hadn’t even considered when I started a blog of my own for the first time. I actually used the term “start an online uprising” in a post that was suppose to be humorous. Now I’m wondering if I should reword it.
5 anonymous // Jan 8, 2006 at 11:53 pm
I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said that the citizens have the right to “replace” their government when that government no longer represents the people. I know that this is not an exact quote but close.