Facebook is currently used by various agencies. It is helpful for determining associations between people that are not otherwise known to the agencies.
On Thu, 23 Jan 2020, 2:33 pm Greg Keogh, <gfke...@gmail.com> wrote: > Folks, most of us probably know what I'm about to say, but when you see it > live, it's really frightening. > > My wife had to join Facebook for the first time ever to follow her nephew > who is a firefighter in the ongoing disaster. She joined okay without being > asked for a phone number. The next day she tried to get in via the Apple > App and it demanded a mobile number. It was an absolute block until a > number was entered, so she was compelled to. Now it gets scary... > > She immediately was offered hundreds of friends that included my friends, > musicians I have played with, her old work mates in jobs going back 40 > years, extended family adult and children friends of both sides of our > family, old workmates of mine going back to the 1980s, etc, and the list > goes on to find obscure and tenuous links of every imaginable kind. > > So … given that she has never been on FB before … where did all those > associations come from? We know they have good algorithms of course, but it > means that FB could be used to perform a comprehensive and reliable > analysis of the complete life of someone who isn't even a member. Imagine > if the police, or criminals, or an oppressive government simply asked FB > "what do you know about person X?" Even if X isn't a member, they could > compile a fantastically detailed dossier. > > How much information does FB hold? Who are they sharing it with? It's > worse than we think. > > *Greg K* >
