Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Abstainers Could Be Labeled Suspicious
bs0d3 writes "According to this article printed in tagesspiegel.de, not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer.(German) As examples they use Norwegian shooter Anders Breivik, who used MySpace instead of Facebook and the newer Aurora shooter who used adultfriendfinder instead of Facebook. They already consider those with Facebook accounts, who lack friends to be suspicious, but now they are suggesting that anyone who abstains from Facebook altogether may be even more suspicious."
I submit: https://www.facebook.com/dexter
(OTOH, I unfriended the account because disappointingly it wasn't even a little bit in-character)
I'm starting a compay that knocks people to the ground and puts a boot on their neck. My business model is to sell ads on the soles of the boots. Ticker symbol FY is available. W00t! Get the VCs on the line.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
While there may be overlaps, my understanding is the primary objective of FaceBook and Adultfriendfinder are not precisely the same. For example, it seems that many more photos on facebook involves clothing, and I am sure many of the people on facebook do not intend to have sex with everyone who friends them.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
I submit that this sort of story is overblown.Yes, this is one out of hundreds of characteristics on a list. Just having one or even fifty from the list doesn't mean any individual has crossed the threshold of "suspicious". Everyone on /. should be familiar with this sort of thing from spam filters.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
That you are old.
They're a commercial enterprise making their money off profiting from the private data of others. I've had libertarians proclaim the company to be an example of the value of the free market, but I consider them an example of how a private company will manage to find something valuable about others and get money for it with a higher cost than you might realize.
Now maybe you consider the service Facebook provides worth it, but I consider the cost of being on Facebook not worth any service.
So...count me out of it. I could even be convinced to shut them down, though it would probably take some serious abuses before enough public support could trump the propaganda for it.
Breivik most certainly did have a Facebook account. He networked with anti-immigration and anti-Islam groups on Facebook. His address list for his manifesto was compiled from Facebook profiles that he had friended.
You know who else never used Facebook? Hitler!
This line of thinking could sure help Facebook's stock value.
Uhm ... no. The more that Facebook is seen as something that you need to do (institutionalization) instead of something you do because it is cool, the less cool it will be. In fact this line of thinking may even make it cool to 'rebel' against the establishment (Facebook). This is how these social networking sites die. The cool kids leave first, everyone else follows soon after.
Look where all this talking got us, baby.
Hmm well Jeffrey Dahmer didn't have facebook, Charles Manson didn't have book :O OMG!!!!!! Hmmm but Jesus didn't have book either ....... Glad pesudo science still rules!
Insanity helps Facebook's stock value. Summaries should always have a punchline.
Oh, and parent should not be modded down. "Fuck You" is pretty much the only valid response to that bullshit.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Sorry, but I have no desire to have my personal information shared on FaceBook, nor do I care about the status updates of 'friends". I was on there, and deleted my account. I see no value in it. If people want to get ahold of me, they can text, email, IM me. If they want to know what I'm up to, they can ask or check out my website for info.
If that labels me as "suspicious" so be it. I have no desire to see Fuckerberg make money from his hodge-podge system.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
This guy has been circulating around the internet as the profile of the next mass murderer on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ld=2582718763
I've had a Facebook account for years. I've even made one for each of the little voices in my head, too :)
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
Does the article have some more evidence than those two unrelated cases?
I'll admit the MySpace to Facebook comparison was closer. However ... comparing Facebook to AdultFriendFinder? Either I don't hang out in the "right" Facebook groups or this is total bull. They are not even close to interchangeable in purpose, audience nor function.
I suppose the reason I find the concept of this article sad is that we're moving to a place where instead of an expectation of privacy ... we now have an expectation of no privacy. I post photos, sure, and status updates and events. But I'm careful about the permissions on them and I don't post EVERYTHING nor will I. If that makes me suspect, well, I guess suspect me. But it -should- show I have a reasonable level of intelligence on what I keep private.
While I do use Facebook, I have a number of friends, neighbors and co-workers who do not. And I don't consider them suspect. Why would I? I don't go "oh, my neighbor is always frequenting that gaming site but refuses to use Facebook, he must have something to hide".
I also have a number of friends who either maintain multiple accounts (because they hate dealing with permissions) OR keep their account obscured so that you have to know that it is their account (different name, odd profile photo, different email account, etc). Purely because we ALL have people in our lives we don't want to know EVERYTHING. Is that the next step for being suspected?
Glass walls. You don't want them. At least not until everyone in power can give up their judgements about peoples' personal lives.
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
"not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer."
:P
All I can say to that is: "SIlence! I kill you!"
In all honesty, I don't want to be friends with anyone who live their lives on Facebook. I have a few friends who post photos there from time to time, I can live with that, but otherwise...
It seems funny to think people - who saw the intended application, the target audience, the main purpose and the negative properties of facebook-like sites, and decided not to be an active part of it - so so consider such people murderers or something equally bad.
Also, not being on facebook doesn't necessarily mean someone doesn't want to be out there, e.g. I know people who are on linkedin, but are not on facebook - so what does that mean? No, please, never mind answering that, I already have spent more time on this idiotic topic than I ever wanted to.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
I thought most parents teach their kids "don't give your personal info to strangers".
Remember, Zuckerberg's a stranger to your kids no matter how many free things (services) he offers them, just as much as some guy offering free candy from an unmarked van.
because I have a barebones Facebook account with almost nothing on it and I never use it. I think I created it some years ago so I could get tickets to a comedy club, or something. I do networking through LinkedIn and that's about it. I guess I'm a mass murderer.
I don't have a Facebook account because I neither have the time nor the desire to put any degree of personal data on there. It simply does not interest me, and heaven knows I post enough on the intertubes.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Wth?
What if you don't use ANY "social media" crap and you actually SPEAK to your friends..?
-- Counting backwards since 1984!
Right on. This whole thing is very thoughtcrimey--I guess I should expect "lemme see your passport, SSN, and Facebook account while I wand and grope you" real soon.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Lisa: "By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away."
And I don't use FB, only LinkedIn - what does that make me? Potential murderer for hire?
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Many of my real-life friends have no Facebook presence because they have cleared software jobs and have been instructed to not have social profiles or blogs in order to maintain their clearance.
Just another clue that Holmes was a CIA asset.
So using megadoses of peer-pressure to get everyone on Facebook isn't enough anymore... Now not being on Facebook is actually considered to be a serious clue that there is something seriously wrong with you? What a load of bullshit. What a load of bullshit. What a load of bullshit. ------ Many ordinary people who are smart about privacy do not put their lives on Facebook for a very good reason: Zuckerbook exists purely to make money, and cannot be TRUSTED with the details of your life, however mundane they may be. 3 cheers for everyone who abstains from Facebook for privacy reasons. Hip-Hip-Hooray. Hip-Hip-Hooray. Hip-Hip-Hooray. ------- End of message -----------
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
I get funny looks all the time when I say I know all about FacePlace and consciously refuse to join.
My sister worked on me for months (we're both "old") to join before I finally got testy and told her under no circumstances would I join. I think she thought I just didn't understand it and just needed to be shown how wonderful it was. She was genuinely hurt by my reaction.
It's like belonging to a religion in many ways. True believers have trouble understanding how others don't share their beliefs; clearly they just need the right explanation to bring them around.
Just like the car commercial I go out and do things, with real people, not sit at my table cyber stalking 682 people at the same time watching dumb shit puppy videos. I also am not a 20 something living at my parents house and actually have work and responsibilities.
So tagesspiegel.de, fuck you, I have a life
Today's Dilbert is right on topic: SHHHH! It hears you. .
I don't like being packaged and sold as a commodity.
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
I think lacking any kind of social networking profiles probably could be part of an antisocial disorder diagnosis. I don't see why Myspace would be any worse than Facebook as long as you have active friends. Adultfriendfinder however probably does not count as social networking unless they have nonsexual forums and chat rooms. I would argue being active on Slashdot or Reddit discussions is social behavior. Not having any social network in real life or online is antisocial and a warning sign as antisocial tendencies have a strong correlation other issues.
I submitted a very similar story a week ago:
http://slashdot.org/submission/2173921/social-networking-the-dark-knight-massacre-and-the-missing-facebook
It was voted up to the highest entry in the queue for that hour, but then it was mysteriously deleted while lower voted articles made it to the front page. The direct link to my submission remains above, but it was simply gone from the queue, and everything submitted before and after it remained. If it had been down-voted, that's one thing, but it was up-voted and someone appears to have "made it disappear".
I know that the story CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Costs was in the onion, but I would be surprised if the CIA did not tap into Facebook's data. Those of us who do not have a Facebook account must be a pain ... how to encourage us to tell the CIA^h^h^h Facebook all that they need to know .... how about make them feel worried that they might fall under increased suspicion ? Well: it will work with a few people, so a cheap and effective way of gathering information about more people.
I wonder what the correlation between people writing about serial killing and them being serial killers is? Probably stronger than not being on facebook and being serial killers.
Ah, so any mass murderer needs to get himself a FB account immediately, just to stay clear of such stupid generalisations.
You can't handle the truth.
Adding to what I previously said - this is slashdot. Everybody here is well aware of numerous legitimate reasons not to use Facebook, as well as the perfectly valid "I don't want to".
The notion that there is some "science" behind the idea makes it more likely that at some point in the future, somebody in the future will stop me at an airport or a police checkpoint. Because I don't have a Facebook account.
As rational people who support the scientific method, we must make our voices heard when this kind of rubbish comes along. Profiling people based on their internet usage - for "national security" - is likely to become a reality in some countries before long. "He uses computers a lot, but he doesn't like Facebook? Give him a full search."
I consider my self a pioneer in the use of computers but also modern. My experience covers the range from plug boards and punched cards to client-server networks and remote operation of PCs.
I do not participate in any social network. I have little interest in "friending" someone I never met face-to-face. I do not tweet. Now retired, I have no real use for LinkedIn. See my http://www.rossde.com/internet/surf.html#missing.
If that's what it takes to be(come) suspicious in the eyes of the 3- and 4-letter departments I'll be proudly remain suspicious!
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
But wait, you mean correlation!=causation??????
What's that click I just heard......
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
She's never had a computer in her life, and still has a rotary phone, and still grows her own chickens and vegetables, and has never had a credit card.
She must be a terrorist.
So because I refuse to submit to Facebook's non-friendly terms of agreement, I'll now be suspected of being a terrorist or something? Sounds like the same logic used to prove global warming is caused by the falling population of pirates.
and if routine identity control on the street finds an abstainer then a deep cavity search should performed - who knows what such abstainer can hide there...
>> While it is already established that sites like Facebook and google+ are no good for political activists Are you freakin' kidding me? #Occupy wouldn't be the same without Facebook. Now Google+, that's another story. I mean who wants to occupy a ghost town?
These guys need some reflection.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
Like, not having sex with blonde and attractive girls could mean you are a child molestor? Or sex criminal? Or, noooo, god no, same sex disliker???
This is just more of this Reality TV society we live in. Unless you are spending all your free time being popular something is wrong with you. Here's a reality check, Facebook was started by a couple of unpopular nerds. How's that for irony!
Profiling people based on their internet usage - for "national security" - is likely to become a reality in some countries before long.
I'm fairly sure the NSA has been doing this for years. And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out they regard anti-social indicators with similar suspicion. It's not a very novel notion.
Guess I'm on America's Most wanted at this point. I check my FB about once every couple of months, so I must be suspicious. The reason I don't go on? Nobody wants to chat. They get pissed when you try to talk to them because they're at work. WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ON FB WHEN YOU SHOULD BE WORKING!?!?
It is not that abstaining makes you any more dangerous.. its that abstaining means you arent part of the herd that can be easily monitored and controlled. To that I say.. (Jim Carrey voice) Scarahheewwww Yaahheeeewww..
Maybe a slashdotter without a Facebook account is practicing his mass murder skills on deleting stuff off the internet before moving on to deleting people! *gasp!*
Just checked, whoa! I have a Facebook account associated with my email. WHOA, I have a password for it. WHOA, I have two ancient friend requests from a guy I worked with last 10 years ago and my cousin's lifepartner.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
As a native German I just read the German article, and have to say it was a quite a good article. It just said not leaving any traces online(Facebook, MySpace etc.) makes you look suspicous in the eyes of HR departments, and you will probably not get the Job, because you might try to hide something. It also quted Dr. Christoph Möller that being addicted to Social Network can deepen Basic Mental Health Problems and also strengthen fear. Dr. Möller also said that he DOES NOT believe that absence from the Internet can lead to mass murders as committed by Anders Breivik and the Shooter from Aurora.
tl;dr Basically the activepolitic.com article got it backwards.
Ok I had 3 old friends, my two kids and some guy who I thiinnnnnk was a headhunter for me years ago. WTH.
I unfriended him.
WAIT DAMMIT! Now he's gonna go kill himself. I'm sorry!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Or else.
Follow the money -- look for some politician or politician's friend who recently bought a ton of Facebook stock at it's half-IPO price.
You don't think the big lawsuits against Taser corporation coming out the same week it went IPO were a coincidence, did you?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The notion that there is some "science" behind the idea makes it more likely that at some point in the future, somebody in the future will stop me at an airport or a police checkpoint. Because I don't have a Facebook account.
I agree that the whole thing is stupid, but I find the part about stopping people unlikely. Rough estimate, probably a quarter of the "friends" associated with my facebook page are using something other than their first and last name, you don't supply your social, and there's all manner of inaccurate auxiliary info in there for everyone. Meanwhile, I can't think of more than one person under 60 that doesn't have an account.
There are 955 million active facebook users in a month. That's three times the population of the US. So let's assume the US is over-represented among facebook users and guess 100 million US citizens that don't have good, solid matches.
So being able to stop each person you don't have a matching facebook account for and doing a psych eval would be downright impossible. You'd end up wasting time almost exclusively on people with facebook accounts... millions of them.
Breathing Human Beings Could Be Labeled as Suspicious
"According to this article printed in tagesspiegel.de, being a living mammal could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer.(German) As examples they use Norwegian shooter Anders Breivik, who is a homo sapien and the newer Aurora shooter who was also a person. They already consider those requiring life support as also suspicious, but now they are suggesting that anyone who is healthy altogether may be even more suspicious. While it is already established that places like hospitals and clinics are no good for zombies, the dead, and ghosts; the undead will have to take a back seat while more and more insane articles like this come out. This line of thinking could sure help morgue businesses."
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
i have on because it is a site where all of my freinds are. i don't post much maybe like once a month but i us it as a chat account a lot it makes it easer to communicate with them. but they won't find much real personal data about me on there that they wouldn't be able to find by scouring the rest internet for information about me.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Way back in the dark ages of online systems I was on BYTE Information Exchange, known as BIX. I was one of the unpaid moderator staff. A critter popped up online using hacked credit card numbers. He posted vitriol over much of BIX, especially some pet conferences he hated. He also attempted to, and did, damage BIX by posting little "love letters" to the woman members. Very few of us stuck it out. This lasted a full year with me getting emails about being raped, often with a knife, cut up and fed to his dog, and the like.
That has taken a toll. I don't care to go through that again. That is why I have adopted a relative anonymity style online. I cannot bring myself to join services that require I give up all my privacy so they can make billions and I can be stalked again.
Does that make me a psychopath or a victim?
I certainly feel like a victim who has declared "never again".
{o.o}
A perfect example of why the Slashdot moderation system isn't broken.
Future articles on this subject will probably include:
"Not On Facebook? You're Harming The Economy"
"$Nation Requires Facebook Account Before Issuing Passport"
"Terrorist Suspects Had Fake Facebook Account"
"Terrorist Suspects Had No Facebook Account"
"Terrorist Suspects Had Facebook Account"
Anyone remember the 90s when the advice was not to put your personal information on the internet?
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
A facebook account of an adult with only two friends; both children... best hope the government doesn't find out.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
By the way, that would be over 6 billion people on that list.
You can't handle the truth.
Of course. Search this page for "He hates people".
Don't be ridiculous, they're obviously not planning on stopping everyone without an FB account. They're probably using something like a Bayes classifier and not having an FB account is just one of many features.
Dilbert RSS feed
why would someone not want to join a site where all your friends are?
Because I graduated and lost my *@*.edu address before there was a Facebook.
...and I'll kill everyone who has a problem with that!
To me the web is a tool for research and shopping. I don''t feel the need to use Facebook. If you say something e,employers can fread it. More improtantly data miner who IMHO are the scum of the earth collect all your Facebook data. For being social on the internet and connecting with friends there are other services like instant messenger and online worlds to gather and discuses things in real time.
Side note, Deleteing my facebook really helped my cell phone battery.
--- Always remember. 99.36% of all statistics are inaccurate.
Was that English? :P
anyone who would make facebook a prerequisite for friendship doesn't sound like a very good friend
Sometimes you don't want a friend as much as you want an employer. The article made it sound like if you don't have an account on Facebook, you won't get any offers better than minimum wage.
There's a difference. The way I read COPPA combined with certain anti-anonymity proposals, it appears people MUST NOT use their real PII online until the thirteenth birthday, after which point the rule becomes that they MUST.
Never had much interest in old high school friends being able to find me, and my relatives and current friends know how to get in touch with me if needed.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
and if routine identity control on the street finds an abstainer then a deep cavity search should performed - who knows what such abstainer can hide there...
His/her privacy, for one (the horror!).
A Facebook abstainer could be a future mass murderer. And so could a Facebook participant.
A Facebook abstainer could be a saint and a scholar. And so could a Facebook participant (OK, that's a bit dodgy).
The whole thesis of judging people by whether they are on Facebook or not is ridiculous.
Out of 7 billion persons on this planet, let's say 4 billion are adults but not yet too decrepit to handle a PC or smartphone - i.e. of suitable age for Facebook. There are less than 1 billion Facebook participants (probably quite a bit less, due to fake accounts, etc.). So by a conservative estimate, 3 billion persons on the planet are Facebook abstainers, and therefore are potential mass murderers or something. Such an intellectually vacuous conclusion can only be reached by digesting utterly absurd bullshit.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
I mean not only is the total horse shit - it isn't even true (as it were), in the sense that such a proposition has to be predicated on "almost everyone" having an account - something that is BS.
It just shows how the echo chamber of online ideas leads to situations like this, where people end up believing that "almost everyone" would have an account simply because their world is centrered around the ecosystem.
I had a group convo a while ago on fb that was interesting for two reasons. 1. The very fact that the convo happened, as fb very rarely comes up in discussions - people just don't care much about it, and are more likely to email or text than center their lives around it. And 2, the fact that as the convo proceeded it was surprising how many people didn't have or rarely used it.
Honestly, move outside the 18-25 bracket and usage just dives - even if they have accounts, they don't use them. Facebook isn't a new google - the markets are starting to realise that - "tagesspiegel.de" should probably realise it as well
It's strange that a German publication would be so quick to make these sorts of suggestions. Did they learn nothing from the examples of the Stasi and East Germany? If the leaders of East Germany and the Stasi could have seen the Facebook of today they probably would have be green with envy. How else to describe billions of people willingly and naively participating in their own mass surveillance? To what sinister purpose might this information be put in the future? It's impossible to believe that the governments of this world, even those who claim to be democratic, will not be sorely tempted to acquire and misuse the information currently being gathered by the likes of Facebook. That's a pretty high price to pay, in my opinion, for keeping up with your friends. To those using Facebook: Have you not considered the long term consequences of what your doing? Are you nuts? Delete the Facebook account and pick up some good history books instead. You will see that history has not been kind to the gullible and the naive.
So if I don't play farmville I'm a suspect?
TOP DSLR Cameras Reviews of the top DSLRs
I'm not buying it. Even if that were what we were talking about, it seems impractical to the point of absurdity, and might well reduce the fidelity of screening like that if it even exists. And I'm not sure anyone is nearly as worried about finding the white male mass murderer at places where we screen. At least, not so much as terrorists... people, it seems, we have a hard enough time picking out of a crowd with much better data.
But it doesn't matter, there's a list of reasons I don't see that happening anyway. What doesn't surprise me is that the paranoid persecution complex on slashdot would manifest here.
My sister worked on me for months (we're both "old") to join before I finally got testy and told her under no circumstances would I join.
If only one testy can make you bold enough to speak your mind, imagine what both can do.
[Belonging to Zuckerbook is] like belonging to a religion in many ways.
That's a good illustration. "Why should I join the Church of Zuckerberg?"
Reducing the fidelity of screening hasn't stopped them in the past, unfortunately.
This means people on LinkedIn are likely to be either career criminals or career businesspeople.
Or they may even have chosen an industry that satisfies both criteria - banking, politics, music production and so on...
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
FB must be pretty desperate to up the value of their stocks, paying some German rag to say if you don't get FB you might be a mass murderer.
Oh, and parent should not be modded down. "Fuck You" is pretty much the only valid response to that bullshit.
That which is not mandatory will be compulsory. Did you hear the joke about why the lemming crossed the road? Because everyone else did it too.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
They're probably using something like a Bayes classifier and not having an FB account is just one of many features.
I don't know how reassuring this is, given that I neither have a Facebook account nor a mobile phone, and don't twitter either...
"Money is a sign of poverty." - Iain Banks
Sorry about the mistyped title.
"Money is a sign of poverty." - Iain Banks
Don't worry, they don't need to stop you to find out whether you have an account or not. They'll just read the nfc tag of your phone... And then they'll stop you.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Not too long ago my national government was looking for a way to make digital dealings with the government easier. As usual, a truckload of very, very expensive consultants were brought in (Cap Gemini) who then spent a lot of time, money and paper working on possible ways to accomplish this.
Their final verdict? Facebook integration. I kid you not. These guys actually thought using Facebook as the primary identifier to facilitate dealings with local and national government would be a good idea.
Fortunately it seems there must have been some civil servants with a bit of sense, because those documents were very quickly never heard from again.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Citation? I'm sure there are plenty of non-US serial killers who simply aren't labelled as such because many countries don't have the same macabre and freakish press that the US (and, yes, my home country of the UK) have. Plus, serial killer != mass murderer, very different things.
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
I don't disagree. The joke is that we just don't care about the vast majority of those people we once knew.
You OK these people, find out they put on a lot of weight, had 2.5 kids, have some health problem, and hate their jobs. Big surprises. Then your interest wanes, you don't get around to removing those people... but you continue to gripe that they're spamming your "news" feed with lots of stupid crap you don't want to see. ;)
-That you are an IT expert who knows better than to trust technology.
-That you are aware of the numerous times that Zuckerberg's account has been attacked.
-That you learn from the mistakes of others who ruin their lives by posting something stupid.
-That you value your privacy.
-That you do not appreciate being monetized.
-That you are not so insecure in your friendships that you need to seek out validation.
-That you do not want to make it any easier for a government to oppress you.
Ok, I don't know for sure that that's true, but I'll give you that one on assumption alone. ;)
With that massive sample size of 2 cases they MUST be right...that's rock solid statistical analysis./p>
I find it disconcerting that having a FaceBook account makes you less suspicious and more hirable. Isn't this just another form of discrimination? We've finally gotten (mostly) past looking at people's race, religion, sexual preference, and skin color but we can now look at their willingness to keep nothing personal and private and hold that against them? How is this legal?
... we will have to hand over Facebook account password just to get past airline security. What? No Facebook? Under arrest!
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
They can't get everyone to have their boarding pass and id out before the security checkpoint. You think we'll jump right to confirmation of facebook membership with matching credentials via NFC?
Only SHEEP use facebook!
...who have no "social network" acounts at all.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
My mom is on Facebook, although I am not. I saw a story a few years ago about how this sudden increase in older people was hurting Facebook's cool factor and driving some of the younger people away.
Any /.ers with a kid / parent also /.ers? Why can't we have interesting ask /.s like that? Tech seems to run in families, or so claims this 4th generation engineer / 3rd generation ham radio operator...
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
You mean 'conspicious'?
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
I've been doing this all wrong!
You can't change your race, but you can easily create a Facebook account that contains nothing useful or interesting, send friend requests to random people and accept any that come your way. If this becomes a real issue I'm sure we can automate the whole process so that you can have virtual Facebook presence without having to actually visit the damn thing yourself. As an added bonus having various Facebots interact with each other trying to pretend they are humans while other bots try to spot them should help advance AI quite a bit.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
98% of which cannot be verified. So, like many, many people on Facebook, feel free to invent yourself a new life.
It's okay, because they'll cross-reference the information you give them with the information on Facebook. Like plugging a UPS into itself.
I am John Hurt.
That's a good point, i will encourage my parents to open a Facebook account.
Adultfriendfinder instead of Facebook?! Are those really considered to fulfill equivalent niches?
That's like saying 'He uses K-Y Lubricant instead of WD-40'.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
With the new increase in ads, and the fake "activity" postings which are really advertising, Facebook is definitely pulling a Myspace. Facebook was cool once. No longer.
I have Facebook apps turned off, every Zynga property blocked, "comments and likes" disabled for everybody but a few close friends, and Do Not Track Plus installed. And still, more than half the content on Facebook pages isn't about what my friends are actually doing.
(With Facebook tracking blocked, Facebook's ads go random and turn into generic spam. I'm getting spam-like subjects such as "Precious metals giveaway", dating ads aimed at men, a weight-loss ad aimed at women, and some cheap plastic iPad accessory. Blocking Facebook's tracking breaks their revenue model.)
Stop generalizing you idiots.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
You think people will pay for something that they already get for free* from the government?
*or pay for via taxes, depending on your point of view
Not just that, but we're going to use our massive sample size of...2. To declare this conclusive!
Historically someone who behaves differently than everyone else could be labeled suspicious. It's how those in control suppressed rebelious thoughts. It's the same reason why the masses generally concider scientists to be suspicious.
Works for me! Isn't that the floor that the TSA uses?
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
So I must be one of those lurkers ready to explode into violence, but then if I google my real name I find ALMOST NO references. Paranoia has its benefits...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
In this brave new world, everybody except politicians, bankers and billionaires are "suspicious"!
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
In the Soviet Union, if you weren't a party member, then you would have been labeled an enemy of the state. Does anybody smell a dictatorship coming here?
if free market is supposed to be able to solve every problem, why do i still need to scratch my balls?
There are many good reasons for not having a Facebook account. Many people don't understand the risks associated with Facebook.
"Facebook Follies is a one-hour documentary that takes a look at the unexpected consequences of people sharing their personal information on social media."
http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/episode/facebook-follies.html
Sorry, the full episode is available for online viewing only from Canada.
Actually, it is people without a facebook OR slashdot account that will be considered suspicious.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
waiting to happen
Oh sure. We believe you.
Ah yes, the 90s...when you had to actually hack something to be called a hacker, instead of borrowing a friend's phone and downloading their data, and the stock market was there to make you money instead of suck all of yours up to the wealthy top tier who pays off the government to look the other way.
The government sucks. It is the most un-American thing in the country. Fuck them, and everything they stand for.
Come get me fuckers, I'm waiting.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
I refuse to participate in that clusterfuck circlejerk analprobe that is Facebook.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Hey, your sig is messed up. I think its "porpoises".
I consider my self a pioneer in the use of computers but also modern. My experience covers the range from plug boards and punched cards to client-server networks and remote operation of PCs.
I do not participate in any social network
Even slashdot? Or usenet?
Eat sandwiches.
Do you eat sandwiches? You must be a mass murderer.
Why is it that idiots always spazz out and shoot people at random? If they were to target, let's say these consultants then, while still very wrong and criminal, their actions would at least make the planet a better place.
and in modern america that makes me 'very suspicious', doesn't it?
ASK ME IF I FUCKING CARE.
I just don't. I really don't care if you think I'm a bad guy or good guy. I don't live for your approval and I don't need it.
consider me suspicious all you want. I know I'm in good company, at least.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I dumped Failbook months ago; come arrest me for mass murder, you fucking morons! I've never heard such utter nonsense in my entire life! You may as well claim that ingesting saliva in minute amounts over a long period of time causes death!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
That's some totalitarian shit, for real!
I guess comrade Stalin and the Khmer Rouge would've loved this era of ours!
Really, some people in the intelligence community are just losing their minds...
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
If I'm not a customer of a particularly large corporation, then I'll be investigated by the police?
I'm not a good citizen if I don't use a certain service?
What if I don't drink coke, I don't use windows, and I don't buy prada? Is that suspicious too?
Part of /etc/hosts in my computer:
127.0.0.1 hotmail.com
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 live.com
127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 platform.twitter.com
127.0.0.1 www.twitter.com
127.0.0.1 twitter.com
127.0.0.1 plusone.google.com
Social anything is bullshit. I don't need big corporations to track who I speak to. Why am I expected to have 200 friends? Anybody that says they have more than a handful of friends doesn't really understand the meaning of the word friend. Acquaintances, buddies, coworkers ... sure. But friends? Quite a different thing. So, why would I publish my life online so that anybody can find out about it from the comfort of their homes? I don't hide my activities. If you want to know anything about my life, it's enough to call and ask. But publishing them is altogether a different thing.
Ultimately, my rejection of social.* isn't because I'm a privacy nut. My google account is tied to just about every service they have, and they've run my email since 2004 or so (I got my account very early in the invite-only era of gmail). My company's mail goes through google for your domain (now google apps). It's not tracking that bothers me the most, it's just that I find the whole concept of the social web stupid. If I'm interested in knowing something about you, I'll call you and we'll catch up over a beer. I don't need twitter or facebook or whatever. The reason I block everything is it just pisses me off how they creep around you and stalk you all the time into creating an account.
So, yeah, Fuck facebook, fuck twitter, fuck myspace, fuck google plus, and fuck every other asshole doing anything labeled social. Leave me the fuck alone.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
Having a low Slashdot user number.
The alternative to limited government is unlimited government.
In a world with over seven billion people and only eight hundred million facebook users, we have six billion two hundred thousand "suspicious" characters. I'm sure most of them are not in the US. Perhaps we should also make more ridiculous claims here. I have one. If you do not speak English, you are a communist. If you are not white, you are an "enemy combatant". If you are a Muslim, you should be sent to Guantanamo. Tell who ever wrote this to put some stem cells in a petri dish and grow neurones!
Oh I know this one! (Satire coming!)
http://www.realultimatepower.net/ninja/ninja2.htm
Hi, this site is all about ninjas, REAL NINJAS. This site is awesome. My name is Robert and I can't stop thinking about ninjas. These guys are cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet.
Facts:
1. Ninjas are mammals.
2. Ninjas fight ALL the time.
3. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people.
Therefore:
1. All mammals are Ninjas and Homo Sapiens are a subset of mammals
2. The purpose of Ninjas is to flip out and kill people
3. Therefore all homo sapiens are murderers that flip out and kill people!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
My Facebook account is under a fake name, set to unsearchable and "private" every way FB will let me do it.
I don't tell anyone related to a job that I have a FB account.
If they ask, I tell them the half truth that I deleted my FB page a few years ago when they started exposing people's info without asking.
"With that massive sample size of 2 cases they MUST be right...that's rock solid statistical analysis./p>
I find it disconcerting that having a FaceBook account makes you less suspicious and more hirable. Isn't this just another form of discrimination? We've finally gotten (mostly) past looking at people's race, religion, sexual preference, and skin color but we can now look at their willingness to keep nothing personal and private and hold that against them? How is this legal?"
Couple of things:
1. Remember the Political Science professor a few stories over that said algebra wasn't important? He probably likes this story with its rigorous methodology!
2. Facebook is using its money passably well to make itself Too Big To Fail. I can't recall any other corporate entity (except maybe Google) being posited as this kind of social requirement for all phases of being the only way to prove yourself. They're crossing over from simple ad sales to inserting themselves into the What Do You Have To Hide propaganda.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
One of the few people I know who doesn't have a facebook account is a Special Agent with the FBI and one of the least likely people I could imagine who would go bonkers.
They come in the dark, only in the darkest.
Facebook claims to have 800 million users. That means 6.1 billion serial killers are out there!
OMG! That is brilliant! I mean it, "Facebot" is now (c) 2012 ultranova !
Those articles don't include nearly enough question marks. Allow me to suggest the following:
"Are citizens not on Facebook hurting the economy?"
"Is $nation's policy of linking a facebook account to their passport a good thing?"
"Did terrorist suspects falsify Facebook profile information?"
"Is lack of access to Facebook driving people to terrorism?"
"Does $terrorist's Facebook account legitimise social networking?"
Bam! Way more page hits and way less work for the editors.
Moderation Total: -1 Troll, +3 Goat
I always thought I'm suspicious.
I didn't reenter the gun club and the ham radio club precisely because radios and guns are just the stuff of revolutions (I learn't that in school). To no avail, when I went to London when some idiot caused a bomb scare my luggage still got rerouted to the US and I got it back with a bloody TSA bandage, like I have to fly over the US when travelling directly from Germany to the UK.
Now, because of my German heritage and my security awareness I got from living with the Stasi for some time I joined Diaspora (halfhartedly, because I don't need layers and layers of crap) instead of Facebook, and now the idiots are labelling me unsafe!
I have effectively done what my government didn't explicitly ask me for, but I knew that a totalitarian regime would like to see me do.
What else do they ask of me, do I have to choose a low energy density lifestyle that includes subsistence farming and some non-agressive belief like that of some south-east-asian countries. Amusingly some of my idiotic fellow citizens in Catholicistan (also called Bavaria by some) are calling them Buddhist swine - what a joke.
Well, for a society with a massive looming energy problem and some financial fallout already on the map we are behaving predictably erratic.
I suppose I have to just let it wash over me, at some point the maddening screams of the mass media will stop, slashdot included.
Je me souviens.
Back in '03 I was blackballed for being too old. My loss...yeah...that's it... a loss.
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
Gee, thanks for posting this in every article. Do you have anything on hosts files and GNAA membership, or should I wait for APK?
DATABASE WOW WOW
the next new and shiny website to come along will get the migration of users. Are they going to arrest everyone citing suspicious behavior at this happens?
Is there a Facebook account from anyone from North Korea? I wonder what the first North Korean Facebook account is gonna be? The Supreme Leader?
Now, wouldn't that be funny as fuck?
UPDATE! Kim Jong-Un has a tweeter account! http://twitter.com/groriousreader
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
Der Tagesspiegel: The day's mirror.
These guys need some reflection.
er, perhaps a more correct translation would be "The Daily Mirror" ie "tabloid press".
For Americans who don't do The Dead Tree Thing think "Fox News".
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
If I were to ever sign up for a Facebook account again, it would only be if Facebook paid me money to do it. They profit off the ads I'm shown and the information I share. Since that information about me has real marketable value, I feel entitled to a portion of it. So if you aren't paying me, GET OFF MY LAWN!
My response to this assumption is "F*ck You, Sir". i am not interested in facebook, myspace, or any other "social networking" sites.
Actually, it's only recently that serial killers have begun getting facebook accounts just to hide form this kind of profiling. It is clearly traceable that even as recently as 2004, 100% of known serial killers did not have facebook accounts.
I'm pretty sure that the kinds of things that go wrong with your brain that make you shoot a bunch of people tend to render you unqualified to discriminate the right people to shoot.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
I'm starting a compay that knocks people to the ground and puts a boot on their neck. My business model is to sell ads on the soles of the boots. Ticker symbol FY is available. W00t! Get the VCs on the line.
Won't sell. Your business model has one crucial flaw: it's hard to outsource.
I had (past tens) a fb account
I had it when fb was still brand new (back in 2004/2005 or so)
I logged on fb but didn't feel I liked that place, so I stopped going to fb altogether
It had been 6 or 7 (or 8) years (I lost count) I last visited fb, and I do not missed it, not even a bit
Am I qualified to be a terrorist now?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
It probably runs in social circles. Most of the people I know don't facebook. Definitely less than half.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
No kidding. This has got to be one of the most bogus claims I've seen in ages. It reminds me of a job I was recently looking into that wouldn't hire unless you had a Facebook account and were willing to friend someone from HR at all times or some nonsense. Feel like I dodged a bullet with that place.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that you had to have at least 25 "friends".
"Well, we can't be bigotted about a persons sex, age, race, religion, or sexual preference, so the only thing we got left is their facebook activity". [A. Bunker]
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
You must be right. They almost always just shoot anyone at random. I guess when they unhinge they lose all rationality.
My wife used to have a FaceBook account, and she gave it up two years ago. Am I about to end up on the 11 O'clock news saying "she's not that kind of person", "she would never do such a thing", or "I just can't see her doing that" ?
And this is new how? alt.tasteless vs. rec.pets.cats? alt.fan.karl-malden.nose? Please - nothing new here. Mere distractions to keep us from sending postcards to Craig Shergold. He needs our support...
"Fear is the rootkit of democracy.." Blarkon
Not joining Facebook is not an antisocial indicator.
There are plenty of other social networks, some people run their own blog/site and want nothing to do with the sociopath who runs Facebook and the massive tracking of all internet activity they indulge in.
Not joining Facebook is not an antisocial indicator.
I very much agree, but evidently others do not.
There are plenty of other social networks, some people run their own blog/site and want nothing to do with the sociopath who runs Facebook and the massive tracking of all internet activity they indulge in.
And some people do not use the Internet for social purposes at all, but are plenty social otherwise.
Incredibly some bouncers in the UK have been checking people's Facebook accounts to verify who they are. Apparently they don't realize that you can set up an account in any name and put in any date of birth.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
+1
No way I will ever have a Face Book account everything about that company is just plain wrong.
I don't have a facebook account, mainly because I neither want a potential employer judging me based on it, nor demanding my login. I also don't wish to have my information sold to whoever facebook is making deals with that week, as they change privacy policies.
All my friends are in their late 30's and early 40's. I guess we must all be on the most wanted list, I think one guy has a facebook page that was only created to test one of the proxies at work and the rest of us have no interest in social media at all. Think I better wear a bullet proof vest to cards tomorrow night just in case!
Hitler did not have a Facebook account either, and look how it turned out. The fact that it was reported in a German newspaper - coincidence? I think not!
of the corporo-government surveillance program.
Or to deprive US corporations from their right to own the "content" representative of our lives.
Not that I blame the government or the corporations, they're just doing what comes naturally to them.
Now, the rest of you that use FB, etcetera, I have nothing but contempt and ridicule for the rest of you, you bunch of fucking stupid clones, YOU are what's wrong with the world.
No, but not joining Facebook is certainly an indicator of non-mainstream social behavior. I can't really argue with that - I avoid it, but I'm certainly not an example of mainstream social behavior either.
Anyone remember the 90s when the advice was not to put your personal information on the internet?
Norms change - that which was radical in the past is conservative in the present. Basically they're looking to profile conformity, and doing things that are unusual like not spamming your friends with pictures of cats is non-conformist.
Basically, if you do the sort of stuff that the average person does, then you're fine. Otherwise, you are to be viewed with suspicion. So get out and start a riot after the next football game like a proper idiot...
This, or something like this, is inevitable.
There are certain technical requirements for taking part in society and punishments can be severe.
For example: I suspect that a parent in the U.S. could be considered "unfit" for not having any kind of phone. Well, maybe that on its own wouldn't be damning, but it would be taken into consideration in a custody battle.
Tom Geller
How did this get modded "Insightful"? :)
My oldest son is only 8. Still a little young to hang out on Slashdot. The way he's headed, though, he'll fit right in here. (I mean that it in a good way.)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I'm pretty into social media and yet I don't have a Facebook account. This is for two big reasons. First of all, I'd have to use my real name on Facebook and I have a pseudonym I use on social media. I don't want that pseudonym tied back to my real name. (This is one reason why I quit using Google+.) Secondly, I have limited "social media" time. I have a day job and do freelance work at night (to say nothing of spending time with my family). I'd rather do one or two social media platforms well than spread myself over a bunch and struggle to keep up.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Replying to undo accidental redundant moderation.
actually, I want to say the opposite of the title, but the reasoning is similar to the gun control debate.
With gun control there is the defending perception that guns don't kill but people do. There's a valid point there, but there's another one to counter it: if all you have is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail, namely the availability and prevalence of a pattern, will mean it will be used much more often.
One can defend the system of profiling people and compiling databases with scores, where not having a facebook account increases your score with one unit, posting anonymously with another unit and so on. The database is just an assistance, there should be a person making the final decision. Of course that person should understand that not having a facebook account is by itself not enough reason to consider them a terrorist. Of course facebook is a weak indicator, there is only a weak correlation with terrorism. That is not a problem in profiling.
But what happens in the real world? You get this database with scores, and it all doesn't mean very much but if you have a score of 10+ (you also listen to RATM, +1, read alternet.org , +1, have been critical of foreign policy, +5) and hey they're not accusing you of anything, but somehow at the airport you have to meet the softspoken man with the rubber glove , and if you don't like that, that's 5 points extra and you end up on the noflylist. The officers at the airport could allow you through, but the people who made the database must have known what they were doing, and it's all the information that they have on you, and it would be discriminating if they let some people pass and others not when they have the same score.
So profiling can be counterproductive. And as always, it can be played to make the ratio of false positives worse than with random approaches. Now you know that if you have a certain plan, make sure you have a facebook account so as to keep your score down.
Here are a few of the people not of facebook, Hitler, Bin laden, Jack The Ripper, Vlad the Impaler, Genghis Khan, ... about 95% of all murders and rapists have never been on facebook. The statistics don't lie the majority of evil people through history have not been on facebook.
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
You know, the one they put you on for not behaving like a good citizen in every thought and deed. WtF?!
You'd think with all of that experience and wisdom of age you'd recognise when someone was being tongue-in-cheek... (and if you didn't, you'd still know not to feed the trolls...)
..was actually very sophisticated. If they had a CommieBook, they surely would have applied all sorts of Signals Intelligence Methods. Some say that the MfS was actually on the same level of competence as NSA was then.
Just because ordinary people did not have much access to computers did not mean the state did not have access to such technology.
See
http://www.manfred-bischoff.de/ha_iii.htm#HA%20III
Also, Stasi cryptologists were recycled after the breakdown of the GDR, as their high competence was deemed very valuable. They now work for Rhode&Schwarz, a commercial arm of the German government.
I have dozens of them. All fake, all friending the others to some extent as well as with a number of real people. I've even staged 'fights' between accounts.
One year ago I dumped my facebook account. I deleted all my posts, all my photos, all my friends, renamed my name to a fictitious name, and closed the account. The problem is when you close the account it's still there so that's why I went through the hassle of deleting everything. WHY? I'll tell you why. I've been married to my wife for 26 years. She's awesome, she's my best friend too. A Girlfriend I had before I met my wife found me on facebook, next thing you know an old circle of friends found me. My youngest son's gf was also posting questions to her friends, I was also a friend. The post said "should I pierce my nose" ? Me being the way I am said "hell no, you have a cute little nose. a piercing would make you look like a skank."... well.. maybe skank means more than it did in the 80s. My youngest son and his gf was upset with me so I said you know what ? Enough of this crap. I was using fb to share photos of 4 wheeling with my Jeep and stuff, I don't care to know what everyone is up to. And if my sweet wife read what the old gf posted out of context, she would get upset. So I deleted everything. It's been a year now and no more fb notifications! I prefer to keep it that way. My son's gf never got her nose pierced, in the end she agreed that her nose is too cute. And it turned out her dad said something similar to what I said. She's still with my son. I feel relieved that the old GF can't find me. I never posted my true street address, only the region I live in, that is all.
The TACA or the "Thought and Conformity Agency" want you to have a Facebook account, if you don't have Facebook you just might be the boogeyman, or a thought terrorist! Get your Facebook account today and avoid suspicion and persecution.
i have this pdf file containing the whole psychological assessment of Breyvik. I forgot where i got it, i don't even know if i'm supposed to have it but if anyone would like to see it maybe i can post it somewhere. It's in german, lengthy, and a little more in depth than how not using facebook is the trait of a potential killer (should i delete this?) If i should please do it for me
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
Probably no correlation at all. Those who can, do. Those who can't, write (or teach).
http://www.inc.com/eric-markowitz/facts-of-facebook-ipo-filing-that-will-boggle-your-mind.html
FB is evil, and it's users are stupid assholes.
Don't be a stupid asshole.
"I was arrested and questioned on suspicion of being a violent lunatic."
Goes with...
"Hitler was trying to kill me" - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6541343.stm and my commuter train route goes straight past Olympic Park. ...except I've genuinely used that one already :/
They don't need *everyone*, just a lot. And they also could hack your bluetooth so you won't even know it.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
No, there is not. It's just a silly semantic trick.
People kill people? Yeah, using guns.
Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
No it's not a semantic trick, it's about assigning all the responsibility to the individual and none to the environment, or in other words, it's taking two 'pure' instances and making them representative prototypes for the whole discussion:
- a person very much motivated to commit murder will do so even if access to guns is made difficult
- a person who does not want to kill will not do so even if there are plenty of weapons around.