Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Patented Making NSA Data Handoffs Easier
theodp writes "In June, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg blasted 'outrageous press reports' about the PRISM surveillance program, denying that Facebook was ever 'part of any program to give the U.S. or any other government direct access to our servers.' What Zuckerberg didn't mention, and what the press overlooked, is that the USPTO granted Facebook a patent in May for its Automated Writ Response System. Like the NSA-enabling systems described by the NY Times on the same day Zuckerberg cried foul, the patent covers technical methods to more efficiently share the personal data of users with law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in response to lawful government requests via APIs and secured portals installed at company-controlled locations. 'While handing over data in response to a legitimate FISA request is a legal requirement,' the Times noted, 'making it easier for the government to get the information is not, which is why Twitter could decline to do so.'"
'nuf said
Andy Warhol got it right / Everybody gets the limelight
Andy Warhol got it wrong / Fifteen minutes is too long.
... and I am glad I never waste any of my time in fb
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
to avoid F***book.
legitimate FISA request
By their very nature they fail to be legitimate in my eyes.
... and I am glad I never waste any of my time in fb
Indeed - the ony thing more amazing than people putting personal shit up on a public website is people putting personal shit up on a public website that's owned and run by a known sociopath.
Andy Warhol got it right / Everybody gets the limelight
Andy Warhol got it wrong / Fifteen minutes is too long.
... and I am glad I never waste any of my time in fb
Don't worry -- at least half a dozen of your friends are working hard to make sure you are not forgotten (posting and tagging fotos, marking "I know this person from..." questions, etc.)
If Mark Zuckerberg isn't Satan, he is at least a close relative.
I'm old, not dead. Well that's my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary. I say what I think, not what you want to hear.
As go the teenagers, so goes the industry.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/10/teenagers-messenger-apps-facebook-exodus
With all this social networking shit, perception is key: once FB is no longer consider cool or the "in-thing", it's fucked. Like Myspace fucked.
Maybe they patented it so that nobody would use it?
If it's automated, it means there's no way a person checked the warrant before giving access.
So whether its legal or not is moot, since Facebook are *trusting* the LEA's claim that its legal, regardless of whether it actually is.
I wonder if Microsoft provides a backdoor portal to Windows PCs? I bet they get far more demands, and they probably would automate it too. I know that telephone companies made telephone tapping automated. A law enforcement officer simply taps something on a screen and can tap any US phone from his desk anywhere in the country. That has the same problem, nobody checks that the court issued warrants limits are complied with, because nobody ever reads it.
Facebook is evil.
At least now we know the real Mark Zuckerberg
This is a surprise to you... ?!
I'd rather be spied on by ...
o Slashdot Poll
Yeah. Before this, no one knew that Mark Zuckerberg was a liar and not to be trusted. I'm sure glad this happened so we could finally see him for what he really is.
Cooperating with the NSA to give unrestricted access to private data (aka PRISM) is completely different to complying with subpoenas. Facebook got a patent on the latter, but not the former as the headline suggests.
If you have a problem with FB giving over your data in response to legal requests then take it up with the agencies making the requests, because Facebook don't get a choice in the matter.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
Yes, we'd love to be more cooperative, but I'm afraid that we don't have the patent rights ....
Hey, Facebook, make sure that no one else can use these techniques. That's your duty as a patent holder.
At least now we know the real Mark Zuckerberg
This is a surprise to you... ?!
Yes, to me, it was
I have heard of the name of Mark Zuckerberg, I know that kid got brains
But I was not aware that he is such a pathetic liar
Now, at least I, and many others, know
And this also teaches me a lesson --- never assume anything --- I was assuming that a brainy fella like Mark Zuckerberg would appreciate the value of liberty
How wrong I was !
Last, but not least, I need to thank Edward Snowden for starting the ball rolling ... If not for Mr. Snowden, we wouldn't have known so much --- NSA / PRISM / and the latest episode ... Mark Zuckerberg
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Sorry Facebook, I have prior art on the "automated writ response system", which I wrote 30 years ago:
10 PRINT "Fuck off"
20 GOTO 10
Hey, Facebook, make sure that no one else can use these techniques. That's your duty as a patent holder.
Excuse me, but where have you put your brain ?
Just in case you've missed it, please allow me to re-post the first sentence of TFA ...
"In June, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg blasted 'outrageous press reports' about the PRISM surveillance program ....
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
At least now we know the real Mark Zuckerberg ...
We've known the real him for a while now:
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks.
http://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-ims-wont-help-facebooks-privacy-problems-2010-5
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Failbook and Zuckerberg make me sick.
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks.
TFA is just evidence of SNAFU: Situation Normal, All Fucked Up.
Microsoft patented (http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&p=1&S1=20110153809&OS=20110153809&RS=20110153809) listening in on Skype calls for the same reasons.
... and I am glad I never waste any of my time in fb
Indeed - the ony thing more amazing than people putting personal shit up on a public website is people putting personal shit up on a public website that's owned and run by a known sociopath.
What I find amazing is that people who have such privacy problems with a voluntary service where you yourself fully control what information you choose to share, if any, don't have it with the omnipresent involuntary data mining Google do (not only through increasingly linking and aggregating increasingly personal information across all their services, but through all the embedded Google scripts in 3rd party sites out there).
So when facebook was just a little more than a glorified picture sharing service everyone + dog was telling me to get on it...as if I was missing some special sauce...
Like so many others I said that like MySpace facebook too will pass into obscurity.
IF facebook do not diversity and move away from this social networking shit model they'll die, just like MySpace.
Personally I don't plan on ever joining facebook. If I had something of content to show people I care about, I will. Facebook does nothing for me and people are begining to wake up that it does nothing for them as well.
It doesn't matter. Whatever alternate channel you are using to communicate electronically with friends and family in lieu of Facebook (e-mail, telephone calls, XMPP...), the NSA is vacuuming up that information too. (Sure, for a handful of tech savvy friends you can convince them to use PGP, but that probably flags you as more suspicious, and only the message content is hidden, not who is writing to who.)
Don't worry, you'll never make them realise that they're not the lead character in a conspiracy thriller. Sure there are "conspiracies" (though not exactly very surprising ones given the contents of the PATRIOT act), but most people are boring as hell. Even the ones that think they're interesting.
which is totally what she said
If only it were that simple. Even if you choose not to share any information, your friends can tag you in photos, letting Big Brother know you were in a certain place at a certain time with certain people. Even if you don't use your real name, Facebook has ways of figuring out who you are by picking up on a single slip-up and asking your friends "Is this user's real name X"? Facebook even creates "ghost profiles" for people who don't even sign up for an account, so without you ever giving consent, any interaction you have with those who do have account is logged. The site is a privacy nightmare.
http://www.theonion.com/video/cias-facebook-program-dramatically-cut-agencys-cos,19753/ :)
Sig ?
You choose you lose. If you put any data on a third-party owned and run system, "private" or not it is your choice.
What I find amazing is that people who have such privacy problems with a voluntary service where you yourself fully control what information you choose to share, if any, don't have it with the omnipresent involuntary data mining Google do (not only through increasingly linking and aggregating increasingly personal information across all their services, but through all the embedded Google scripts in 3rd party sites out there).
Lucky ffffacebook doesn't put code on most websites tracking where you go and combining that data with what's mined from loyalty schemes run by pharmacists. Oh wait....
Well, at least ffffacebook has an actual business model not inflated speculation. Oh crap....
What do you mean it isn't one or the other thing? Cognitive dissonance? What the fuck!
That's not very surprising, Facebook's strong ties to the CIA are well-known. In its early days companies very close to the CIA invested heavily into Facebook and some people likewise close to teh CIA are - or at least were, last time I looked - on Facebook's board of directors.
I’m serious. This prevents other companies from making it easy on the NSA. Facebook will never make any royalties from it, and they’ll likely never implement the whole system. I love it. It’s like the GPL: Using one kind of law (IP) against another.
Zuckerberg is a lying piece of shit, news at 11.
There is a war going on for your mind.
lucky there's ghostery available that stops such tracking.
Try reading my post again. Facebook gathers information about you based on what other people say, even if you choose not to share any information.
What's that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of all these Like buttons trying to track me from every webpage in existence, even resorting to plain-HTML tracking if all else fails. GA stops working if you disable JS.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
making it easier for the government to get the information is not
If you have no choice but to hand over the data, wouldn't it make more sense to automate the process and save your own people some time and frustration?
The site is a privacy nightmare.
It was a privacy nightmare in the early days. Now it's a privacy bad acid trip.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Facebook has made it easier. I hope they made the patent broad. Of course we don't want to end up in lawsuits, so we cannot use any of the technology - right? So in effect the rest of us has to make it harder!
i agree totally...and the irony is that the vast majority of users want MORE of this sort of thing on FB, not less!
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
He should charge per use.... One million dollars!
Google told the same 'they don't have direct access to our servers' lie, come on people let's start seeing some vulgar rants directed at the "Do No Evil" gang. To be fair it isn't a lie, they didn't have direct access. Instead Google/FB just set it up so they could get anything they wanted without having 'direct' access.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
In the surprisingly fierce competition for stupid patents, this one has a leg up on other candidates:
The patent has costs for filing and much larger but nebulous costs for customer relations.
The patent cannot be expected to bring in any revenue. Other who might licence the patent have no incentive to do so since they can bill the NSA for compliance costs. The NSA could direct these others to use the patent, which as an entity of the USGovt it can use royalty-free and so to subcontractors.
Many patents are vain and inane. This one is stupid and destroys shareholder value.
... is to extent FB's interface for law enforcement agencies to reply to all requests with a string "Guru Meditation" and a randomly generated number appended.
Have gnu, will travel.
I recall reading that Facebook had provided a special interface just for the convenience of law enforcement years ago. It was in one of the typical think-of-the-children media reports.
Solution : don't have friend ;).
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
The government isn't a single entity. The NSA still demands your data no matter what the other laws say, and the courts will still rule against your patent infringement. If the NSA asks you for an API, they're telling you to either shut down now or pay the settlement later.
Boo hoo - that's the price you pay for "free" security. If you don't like it, open up shop overseas or on the dark web.
What I find amazing is that people who have such privacy problems with a voluntary service where you yourself fully control what information you choose to share, if any, don't have it with the omnipresent involuntary data mining Google do (not only through increasingly linking and aggregating increasingly personal information across all their services, but through all the embedded Google scripts in 3rd party sites out there).
Lucky ffffacebook doesn't put code on most websites tracking where you go and combining that data with what's mined from loyalty schemes run by pharmacists. Oh wait....
Well, at least ffffacebook has an actual business model not inflated speculation. Oh crap....
What do you mean it isn't one or the other thing? Cognitive dissonance? What the fuck!
The cognitive dissonance is that ggggogle is any better than facebook as a privacy nightmare. It's the shiny object redirection effect, when many nerds personally like their products better than facebook.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10435501/Google-pilot-programme-tracks-shoppers-everywhere-they-go.html
Mark Zuckerberg is one of the biggest douchebags going right now.
He obsessively protects his privacy, while undermining everyone else's.
I believe we owe it as a public service to make absolutely everything about this asshole public -- his address, his phone number, his bank accounts, the addresses of his family.
This man needs to be kicked in the nuts every time he goes out into the world.
Useless fucking asshole.
lucky there's ghostery available that stops such tracking.
IIRC ghostery was acquired by a marketing firm, which should make you at least question the product.
Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
This looks like any standard user interface to a database and basic computer architecture. I suspect the devil is in the details as to what kind of data blobs are defined in a "request" and what data blobs get returned to a user. As far as I can tell, this patent covers all data blob implementations. How can this be a patent?
'While handing over data in response to a legitimate FISA request is a legal requirement,' the Times noted, 'making it easier for the government to get the information is not,
But making it easier for the NSA also makes it cheaper for Facebook to perform its legal compliance functions -- thus increasing Facebook's profits.
Capitalism demands that Facebook maximize its profits at the expense of everything else. Therefore, Facebook MUST pursue such cost-savings -- unless there is demonstrable evidence that those actions will result in a net loss.
Nice company you've got there -- it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it.
And it even fits in 140 chars!
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
Facebook even creates "ghost profiles" for people who don't even sign up for an account, so without you ever giving consent, any interaction you have with those who do have account is logged. The site is a privacy nightmare.
Facebook takes your name, address, phone number and email address from your friends phones using the FB app. Your co-workers too -- you did give HR your 'emergency contact number' right? You can bet those are programmed into a phone contact list so HR can send a group message.
I'm sure you could be jobless and friendless living in a cave, but that's about the only way to avoid it now.
I suggest poisoning the database. Add false contacts to your phone, use one to sign up for store discount cards and fake Gmail/FB accounts. Just one per person is enough to screw up everything they're doing.
Bingo. I never knew that, but teh googs confirms it quickly.
From ghostery web page:
"© 2013 Ghostery, a service of Evidon, Inc."
From google, searching for "Evidon"
"""
Evidon: Home | Online Marketing Intelligence, Web Analytics, Privacy
www.evidon.com/ - Cached - Similar
Evidon grows businesses by delivering new and accurate intelligence on how
the digital marketplace really works.
"""
I'm glad I never got round to trying it out, I was initially tempted.
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
Hi, this is Jay Nancarrow from Facebook. The described patent was part of our efforts to build out a formal process to manage the various requests we receive. These systems enable us to carefully scrutinize each request manually, and help us push back on many of them if they're too broad, vague, or don't meet a very high legal bar. I should also add that this process has nothing to do with recent reports about activity from the NSA.
If you've never used Facebook, don't start.
If you're using Facebook, stop it.
If you have friends that use Facebook, tell them to stop.
Don't worry about deleting stuff, the odds that deletes are actually not soft-deletes are probably nil.
Just quit it.
More Twoson than Cupertino
no really after all this anyone using it must be a fed , spy or there kids....
most people are boring as hell. Even the ones that think they're interesting.
However, the ones who are interesting tend to be pretty important to society. Guys like MLK, presidential candidates, potential supreme court nominees. Those sorts of people. When the government has access to their private communications it is just too easy to use that access to neuter any people who might challenge the current government.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
If only it were that simple. Even if you choose not to share any information, your friends can tag you in photos,
No. They cannot. You control if you want to let your friends tag you, approve tags, or flat out block tags.
He did read your post, idiot -
"Even if you choose not to share any information, your friends can tag you in photos..."
Your ~friends~ posted photos of you and your ~friends~ tagged you in photos....your ~friends~ are the ones who are ignoring any wished to privacy you may have. If your ~friends~ take photos of you, those photos belong to your ~friends~ not you.
Your problem is your ~friends~, not FB. Dumbass.
Actually, your problem is knowing how to use Facebook, which isn't that difficult. Friends can not tag you without consent.
are lying pieces of shit - I can't wait for the 4th Reich
How do you propose to control that if you don't even have an account? Here's a hint: you can't.
Here we see the problem with only reading comments that have been modded up. CRCulver was responding to an AC post commenting his own original post that had been buried by the moderators.
I have no friends. No one can say anything about me.
If only it were that simple. Even if you choose not to share any information, your friends can tag you in photos, letting Big Brother know you were in a certain place at a certain time with certain people.
I have no friends, phew!
It gripped her hand gently. 'Regret is for humans,' it said.
Tags that you do not consent to do not become public. However, Facebook still has the information that someone tried to apply the tag.
Yeah. Before this, no one knew that Mark Zuckerberg was a liar and not to be trusted. I'm sure glad this happened so we could finally see him for what he really is.
Yep. How more obvious can you make it?
To answer my own rhetorical question: He could get a nice white Siamese cat and stroke it while giving interviews.
While Facebook won't apply the tag, they will record that one of your friends tried to tag you. Facebook's name-completion feature notifies the server that user X has begun typing user Y's name in the tag dialog.
How does one avoid them? Go off the grid? Is that even possible?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Surely databases have some way to flag bogus data. Here, perhaps anything that doesn't confirm as referenced by more than one user could be flagged as bad data.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?