From Robert Glenn Plotner: It's *all* being aggregated. Not just Facebook. The entire internet (and beyond). Search engines like Google crawl everything, *even our personal websites,* the data mined. And if Google can do it that easily, you know that Big Brother goes even further. Facebook's primary reason for doing this is to serve targeted (read more profitable) advertising. I don't know that on the scale of things that it harms me if FB sees that I'm a fan of Van Morrison and serves me an ad for tickets. I also don't understand how the government could use that against me. Surely, "they" already know I've been a member of Greenpeace for 25 years without FB's help.
However, the link between tracking and marketing is more questionable when it comes to the political as it allows both the Republicans (VoterVault) and the Democrats (VoteBuilder) to target voters. That robocall and that piece of propaganda mailing you received was likely precisely targeted by what they know about you via hundreds of demographics. In other words, you are expressly made a patsy, told only specific information/disinformation in such a way to create a psychological/emotional reaction against the idea or opponent they want defeated. To take that one step further, such methods when applied by precinct could easily serve as a technological roadmap for election tampering, rigging, suppression. My bet is that this has already happened. But it's not just internet activity. It's every purchase you make with your bank card. Your magazine subscriptions. Your group affiliations. Your charitable contributions. Your coupon usage. Yep, NewsCorp owns SmartSource, the maker of the coupon inserts that arrive in your Sunday paper. Any idea why? Robert ----- Original Message ----- From: <mailto:mark.mil...@nyu.edu>Mark Crispin Miller To: <mailto:newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com>newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 8:54 AM Subject: [MCM] More on facebook From Danielle Holke: The other thing people should know: when you deactivate your account, the data remains. You need to make a request to delete the account: <http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16929680703>http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16929680703 I've had friends who've deactivated their accounts, thinking they deleted them, only to discover months later that their legacy data was still within the Facebook system. Danielle No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - <http://www.avg.com>www.avg.com Version: 8.0.238 / Virus Database: 270.12.2/2072 - Release Date: 04/21/09 16:48:00 No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.0.238 / Virus Database: 270.12.2/2074 - Release Date: 04/22/09 08:49:00 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to newsfromunderground-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---