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Facebook Patented Making NSA Data Handoffs Easier

Posted by Soulskill on from the can-make-a-fortune-on-the-infringement-suits dept.

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.'"

11 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. What an asshole by Enter+the+Shoggoth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    'nuf said

    --
    Andy Warhol got it right / Everybody gets the limelight
    Andy Warhol got it wrong / Fifteen minutes is too long.
    1. Re:What an asshole by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let's not forget, this is the same guy who signed up for Google+ the day it launched and then closed his account because he "didn't want Google tracking him" or something like that.

      He mocks the stupidity of the Average Joe right in front of their faces and they never catch on.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  2. Legitimate FISA request by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    legitimate FISA request

    By their very nature they fail to be legitimate in my eyes.

  3. Re:At least now we know the real Mark Zuckerberg . by Enter+the+Shoggoth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... 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.
  4. Re:At least now we know the real Mark Zuckerberg . by Mitreya · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... 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.)

  5. Ok this just in by Nov8tr · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
  6. Doesn't matter - FB has entered a death spiral by korbulon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  7. Automated means unsupervised by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  8. This is good news for other services by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, we'd love to be more cooperative, but I'm afraid that we don't have the patent rights ....

  9. Re:At least now we know the real Mark Zuckerberg . by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  10. Re:At least now we know the real Mark Zuckerberg . by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Informative

    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 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.