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Facebook Has 25 People Dedicated To Handling Gov't Info Requests
nonprofiteer writes "A profile of Facebook's CSO reveals that his 70-person security team includes 25 people dedicated solely to handling information requests from law enforcement. They get thousands of calls and e-mails from authorities each week, though Facebook requires police to get a warrant for anything beyond a subscriber's name, email and IP address. CSO Joe Sullivan says that some government agency tried to push Facebook to start collecting more information about their users for the benefit of authorities: 'Recently a government agency wanted us to start logging information we don't log. We told them we wouldn't start logging that piece of data because we don't need it to provide a good product. We talked to our general counsel. The law is not black-and-white. That agency thinks they can compel us to. We told them to go to court. They haven't done that yet.'"
privacy shock.
You've already saved them quite a bit of work there.
So Facebook provides all the necessary info for Law Enforcement, but doesn't engage in detailed logging, probably because it is too expensive and as the gentleman said, it doesn't yet fit in with FB's business model. Still, they provide peoples' names, emails, and IP addresses for Law Enforcement, so really they cooperate with the fuzz as much as is needed. Nice damage control, making themselves out to be standing up to Big Brother. Then again, IDNRTFA, and with the way sunmaries have been lately, this could be an article about My Little Pony, for all I know...
- elgo
I am sorry but it is just a facebook ... our world is crazy and controlled by freaks :(
Yet another perfect reason to not use Facebook.
Zuck has personally said that he wants everyone's entire lives made public, and Facebook as a company has been doing everything it can to make your private data public. This is just another in a long line of reasons they're evil.
I have a feeling this entire article is nothing more than window dressing to make Facebook users (or the general public) somehow feel better that ANY logging requested by law enforcement isn't automatically done. Laws and rights pretty much went out the window with the advent of things like PATRIOT act.
I'd be interested to know which one... CIA, FBI, DHS, [redacted]?
ALSO, really, does what they said have to be true? I thought nowadays they could just slap you with some secrecy order, and walk out with your HDDs or do whatever they felt like, and you would be required to deny it publicly? Wonderful police state we live in here...
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
"Recently a government agency wanted us to start logging information we don't log."
Really? Is that so? Which agency and what information...that would be interesting to know.
And how many does say a ISP like comcast have doing that same thing?
What could possibly be so privacy-invading, not-worth-the-disk-space-to-log-it crazy that Facebook doesn't already log it? These people make tons of money selling every minute bit of data and metrics about their suckers^H^H^H^H^H^H^Husers that they can possibly hoover up. What could it be that even *they* wouldn't want to log?
Just goes to show, there is no boundary that some government agency won't want to cross to invade your privacy.
How about Facebook's Actual Law Enforcement Contact page with guidelines. It seems facebook does waive these requirements sometimes, such as when "responding to a matter involving imminent harm to a child or risk of death or serious physical injury to any person and requiring disclosure of information without delay."
What was written (p.2) was,
The sprawling campus is still under construction around us on this February morning, with workers carrying ladders and bulldozers preparing the intrabuilding walkways for food carts and play areas.
What was meant (I think) was,
The sprawling campus is still under construction around us on this February morning, with workers carrying ladders, and bulldozers preparing the intrabuilding walkways for food carts and play areas.
The first time through I had to do a re-parse, as I ended with an image of workers carrying a ladder under one arm and a bulldozer under the other.
They should make a second product, called Facebook-revealed, where all logged data is freely available to everyone.
Then they just tell the FBI that it is their job to move everyone over to the new system. Send them free vouchers for marketing workshops. I'm sure that the FBI has a sense of humor. :)
Free unix account: freeshell.org
If they instead said "not without a warrant" to every request.
I guess currently any law enforcement officer (or anyone willing to break the law and impersonate one) can get that information for any facebook account they feel like.
And how many does say a ISP like comcast have doing that same thing?
For those who had an incredibly hard time parsing that sentence, what with it missing key pronouns and punctuation, here's a translated version:
And how many [staff members] does, say, a[n] ISP like [C]omcast have [responding to law enforcement requests]?
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
that Facebook doesn't already log? I can't think of any user inputed data that doesn't sit on FB servers forever, (I've deleted messages, only to find a link to them years later - click! The info is still there.)
Can we assume that this government agency requested info that is not currently logged by Facebook is some obscure constructed profile data? I really can't think of anything that I would not log, if I were king of Facebook and had the cpu and space to do; FB has both in spades.
This government intrusion into our Facebook profiles is intolerable. Why can't the government stick to overruling our health care and dietary choices and determining how much of our income we should be allowed to keep?
CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Costs
IF Privacy is dead (according to Zuckerberg)
THEN post the names and email addresses of the 25 dedicated people where Anonymous can see it.
Why should FB have to pay 25 people a year to do the government's dirty work? Companies should be able to submit a research bill to the government for these kinds of requests. There's no better check on power than a budget.
It seems like those are bits of information that would be of the utmost importance to protect from warrantless probes for information. I have just removed all FB cookies and will never again log into FB, and called my ISP to change my IP address. How many more privacy fails is it going to take before FB gets it?
Want to slow the gov down from making ridiculous requests? They need to, at a minimum, be charged the cost associated with staffing, processing, and delivering on those requests.
The government, not industry, should also be required to be post the costs and the aggregate data regarding what they get from those requests. Not the individual data, but the aggregate. Annual reporting, at a minimum, should include the number of cases which had these requests, how many of those went to trial, the type of case (drug, domestic, violent), and how many of those types which resulted in a conviction.
We don't want them spending 1000s of hours and of millions of dollars surfing Facebook and listening in on phone calls, while we can't get them to deal with the real criminals.
It doesn't suprise me that this random government agency made this request. I recently had a senior member tell me that we needed a wiretap/full pcap on Facebook. All of it. Because we needed to be able to see who was creating accounts and doing postings on "certain profiles.". I politely told him that he was fucking nuts and that if there was a concern of criminal activity or a national security interest on a particular profile that we would usually go through the FBI for that information. He told me he didn't care what FBI or CIA were doing we had enough 'weight' to demand this ourselves. Whatever... After the meeting was over I told the meeting chair to just send his request to our lawyer so it could be quickly shot down. It will forever escape me why idiots like that get promoted.
Govt IT Guy
If you wanted to be useful, Facebook, you'd tell us the agency, the person in the agency, and the additional information that they wanted you to log. But because it's a Democratic administration that is lavishly supported starting from the very top of FB, why am I not surprised that you've said as little as you can get away with to avoid embarrassing them?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I wonder how facebook handles requests for data about foreigners? I wonder if that data is also protected by the privacy laws of the USA or that they can just provide that without a court order.
yeah, i wonder how well you write your 6th language asshole.
Except him and the Senior Execs of course. And all Corporate Execs. And all Cops. And all Politicians.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
your 6th language asshole.
That seems like a quite talented orifice.
of those 25 people monitor /. exclusivity... ...I mean, anyone that posts here...
Nicely said. Two of the wisest sentences I've read on /. in a long time.
Seriously?
The "old school" ways of keeping in touch seem far better privacywise.
Give Diaspora a try.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Because you live in the USA?
Holey shit! How man language assholes do you have?
FB got 12.7 mil in second round funding through accel partners, headed by the guy who had previously headed the CIA's venture fund. Now that doesn't mean it's an outright CIA operation but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a room 641A style fiber beam splitter somewhere in the FB server farms.
It's easy to solve all the problems with Facebook.
True friends are those with whom you exchange emails, talk on the telephone, and get together. With true friends there is commitment.
Facebook is for pretend friends. Never use your real name. Never give any real information, except your gender. Connect through some other computer. Associate with other fake friends.
Perhaps you should find out what the law is before going all tinfoil hat at Facebook. Specifically, they are required to give up this information and the police are not required to have a court-issued warrant.
[FUCK BETA]
No, not all politicians. Only the ones that do what he asks. Not all corporate execs. Only the ones that pay him.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
You know that it a data mining operation so stop giving them data! I don't use it and am fine. Hell for that matter Google is the next service that am cutting off. At the end of the day all the "Social Media" are data miners the Internet was doing fine before they came along and we can do without them!
We told them we wouldn't start logging that piece of data because we don't need it to provide a good product.
In other words they'd have no problem collecting that data if it were useful to them or their advertisers. All that agency has to do is make a case that holding the information would offer a way to increase revenue by a fraction of a % and they'll be off collecting it with reckless abandon.
Or am I being too cynical here?
If you bothered to watch any of the EFF presentations or even read the linked 18 USC 2703 above, it specifically states:
...only pursuant to a warrant issued using the procedures described in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure...
....if the governmental entity obtains a warrant....
... only when the governmental entity obtains a warrant....
... of a subscriber to or customer of such service when the governmental entity uses an administrative subpoena authorized by a Federal or State statute or a Federal or State grand jury or trial subpoena or any means available under paragraph...
(a) Contents of Wire or Electronic Communications in Electronic Storage.
(b) Contents of Wire or Electronic Communications in a Remote Computing Service.—
(c) Records Concerning Electronic Communication Service or Remote Computing Service.—
(2) A provider of electronic communication service or remote computing service shall disclose to a governmental entity the—
In all cases, either a warrant or a court ordered subpoena is required. Interesting. Which part are you having difficulty reading?
The word "warrant" does not necessarily mean a court warrant. The words "administrative subpoena" do not mean "court issued subpoena". Stop swinging your dick around and do your research a little bit better.
[FUCK BETA]