Facebook Abstainers Could Be Labeled Suspicious 625
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."
Hogwash (Score:5, Funny)
I submit: https://www.facebook.com/dexter [facebook.com]
(OTOH, I unfriended the account because disappointingly it wasn't even a little bit in-character)
Re:Hogwash (Score:5, Funny)
TV Tropes WMG: Dexter's Laboratory (Score:3)
Am I a terrorist ? (Score:3)
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?
Re:Am I a terrorist ? (Score:4, Interesting)
You could always do like I do, and make most of your Facebook information, disinformation. :) I change my employer and location to various government facilities. Sometimes people get confused at the more obscure ones. Sometimes, it's just an arbitrary city and bogus employer. Most of my posts are for my own entertainment.
I don't know what someone would be looking for there, but they're not going to find much factual stuff.
I'm not sure, that may qualify me more to be watched. Or I already am, and have been put on the list "harmless people with strange sense of humor"
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Gee, thanks for posting this in every article. Do you have anything on hosts files and GNAA membership, or should I wait for APK?
adultfriendfrinder (Score:5, Funny)
LinkedIn (Score:5, Funny)
And I don't use FB, only LinkedIn - what does that make me? Potential murderer for hire?
Re: (Score:2)
I underuse them both (FB LI) - going on once every 2 years or so, it seems.
Does that mean I'm mostly psychopathic and only really "safe for society" when I'm out of work and have time for social internet sites?
Re:LinkedIn (Score:5, Funny)
Negative. I tried hiring some murderers through LinkedIn, and didn't get any applicants ... I'm pretty sure Craigslist will have a much better return ...
Re:LinkedIn (Score:5, Funny)
I'm pretty sure Craigslist will have a much better return ...
Ohhh.. you'll get applicants all right. Not what you are looking for though.
Try it. If you sell an "antique writing desk with hutch" it will get instantly translated into, "I'm desperate for vagina. Call or email me at all hours of the fucking night if you have vagina to sell me".
Craigslist should just renamed to questionablehookuplists.com
Re: (Score:3)
Aren't most serial killers sociopaths? Last time I checked killing people unscrupulously kinda fits the sociopath description...
Re: (Score:3)
I'm a cereal killer. I drown them in milk. Does this count?
not unless you have a valid raison.
Re: (Score:3)
+1.
They could at least let you edit until you have a reply. That way you couldn't muck with a thread to make it look different than it happened.
Re:adultfriendfrinder (Score:5, Funny)
Wait.. AdultFriendFinder is a real thing? I just assumed it was a thinly veiled front for prostitution.
You are incorrect. It is not thinly veiled.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm Dutch. If I go to their page I only see "ads" for US looking girls with US names living close to my IP address.
Surely a US prostitute wouldn't fly all the way over here; it would be too expensive, therefore it must be real.
Re:adultfriendfrinder (Score:4, Funny)
Obligatory XKCD [xkcd.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
The correlation that was mentioned earlier was with people that browse each others profiles at the same time.
If Jane checks out Mark's profile everyday at 10pm, and Mark checks out Jane's profile everyday at 10pm, the likelihood of the two of them meeting in the real world is quite high.
The title of the article on slashdot was something like "Does facebook know if you are going to have an affair before you do?" or something like that.
Overblown (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Your post advocates a
( ) technical ( ) legislative ( ) market-based (X) vigilante
approach to fighting spam. Your idea will...
Oh, sorry, you tripped my anti-anti-spam filter. Added you to the whitelist!
Re:Overblown (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Agreed - sort of. This is just one out of hundreds of characteristics, but the title is correct: Facebook Abstainers Could Be Labeled Suspicious.
And it makes sense, why would someone not want to join a site where all your friends are? It's 2012 equivalent to a shut-in or recluse. [wikipedia.org] People are naturally suspicious of someone that chooses not to join normal society.
And it's going to get worse before it gets better, even if Facebook is replaced, there will be another website most people join. Facebook has been popular for what, 6, 7 years? There are teenagers today that don't remember life without Facebook, and as those teens become adults it's going to sound more perverse to hear someone say "I do not have a Facebook account"
Even now, I know people who have been denied jobs, apartments and loans because they do not have a Facebook account, because Facebook is a great tool to contact everyone you "know" to check background and try and reach you if something happens i.e. steal and skip town, etc
Re: (Score:3)
here's how to blow their minds.
if anyone asks why you don't have an FB acct, tell them that you understand computers pretty well, are aware of security problems and that FB is just not secure enough to use. and don't say a word more than that.
in essence, its true, but not the way they may think of it. and it makes them wonder.
which is a good thing.
(did I say 'security' instead of 'privacy'? oh dear! well, it is what it is.)
Re:Overblown (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I didn't mean that at all. I was simply questioning the arrogance/delusion/insanity of someone implying they belong to "normal society".
Especially when talking about mass murder. Yes, it takes a rather fucked up person to open fire on random people, much less children. But the fact that a (supposedly) "well-adjusted individual" can make a career out of the collateral death of orders of magnitudee more people, and most people don't even fucking blink, makes the notion of "normal society" kind of ridiculous. This kind of lunacy is a steady and ever-present killer... you can steal the life of people by leading them in circles or down dead ends no problem, that's a-okay. But when some psycho does that on a much smaller scale, we're kind of relieved because we have someone we can feel morally superior to. Which kind of makes me sick.
In short: fuck mass murderers, but also fuck people :P
Re:Overblown (Score:4, Funny)
You've already identified yourself as weird: you have friends who aren't like you
Or he could be a gay lieutenant that votes differently in each election.
Re:Overblown (Score:4, Funny)
If that makes me a recluse, what should we call someone whose primary social interactions come in 140 character sound-bites and who doesn't spend much social time with others away from their PC?
A twit.
It's also evidence... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's also evidence... (Score:5, Insightful)
Or have principles which prevent you from engaging in such behavior.
Valuing privacy and refusing to participate in information sharing with a company that will only use it in ways you don't approve of hardly makes you suspicious. If some people really do find that suspicious and can't understand the reasons... screw em. You will have as much success changing their minds as changing ultra-religious fanatics minds about their intolerance and bigotry.
The real concern is if businesses or governments start using the lack of social networking presence as grounds for investigations or refusal to be employed.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:It's also evidence... (Score:5, Insightful)
Or that you don't give a rat's ass about 99% of the stupid shit your "friends" post on FB. Most of those people who instantly tried to friend me were people from high school, many of whom were too cool to talk to my nerdy self back then. I didn't like them then, and they've been out of my life for 15 years. I couldn't care less that their baby did something today. Heck, my aunts, uncles, and grandparents use it all the time, so I don't think age is the delineating factor. It's more that I have way more things in my real life than I can keep up with, and I'd much rather be social over a pint at a pub or a MakerFaire or a reprap get-together than on some website with people that don't matter in my life anymore.
I kept my account for about three months, mostly to see if I could find a couple old girlfriends and see what they were up to after my ex and I split. After that, I removed any content I could (I basically only ever uploaded one bland picture and some trivial details) and then told them to delete it. It was just adding to the noise side of the SNR in my life, so I just decided I was done with it. It does seem to be deactivated, but I suspect the Eagles were right on this one - you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
Oh, and just for good measure...
GET OFF MY LAWN, YA DAMN KIDS!
Re:It's also evidence... (Score:5, Funny)
The Carrousel awaits you...
Re: (Score:3)
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...
Sorry, but I consider Facebook suspicious (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
Now maybe you consider the service Facebook provides worth it, but I consider the cost of being on Facebook not worth any service.
I have to admit that I value the service that Facebook provides more than I worry about the (very real) privacy concerns. It's just so ubiquitous and therefore so powerful for reaching people. Sigh...
Re: (Score:3)
You have real information on facebook ?
Summary is wrong (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Summary is wrong (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/24/anders-breivik-facebook-hatred [guardian.co.uk]
Yes, I am suspicious (Score:5, Funny)
You know who else never used Facebook? Hitler!
Re:Yes, I am suspicious (Score:5, Funny)
And Jesus. Mind you he was caught by the Roman Thought Police and, boy, were they cross.
FB (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:FB (Score:5, Funny)
On the other hand, LinkedIn's stock is way up from IPO, while Facebook's is quite a bit down, and pretty much nobody uses LinkedIn on purpose. So institutionalization isn't always bad.
Re: (Score:3)
> ...nobody uses LinkedIn on purpose.
How does one use LinkedIn by accident?
Re:FB (Score:4, Interesting)
Facebook®: Membership Guarantees Citizenship
Re: (Score:3)
Well, also because MySpace was populated with young teens that had the web design skills of.. well, young teens.
Re: (Score:3)
I've noticed that too. I wish I knew where they went so I could invest in the next bubble now.
What? (Score:2)
Sorry (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
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.
There's the problem. People might perceive the methods you suggest so clunky that they might not ultimately contact you at all.
Found the next mass murderer on Facebook... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Found the next mass murderer on Facebook... (Score:4, Informative)
It leads to your own profile.
Phew! I'm safe! (Score:5, Funny)
I've had a Facebook account for years. I've even made one for each of the little voices in my head, too :)
I don't speak German (Score:2)
Does the article have some more evidence than those two unrelated cases?
Apples to Oranges to Grapes (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
not having a Facebook account (Score:2)
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
Re: (Score:3)
Nobody is considering people without Facebook mass-murderers. They're considering it a statistical feature among many others.
No-one should put their true real-world there (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:No-one should put their true real-world there (Score:5, Insightful)
That was 1990s online culture, where parents would caution kids not to use their real name or info online, that kind of thing. Today, the parents are using their real name online themselves, and are more likely to demanding legislation against anonymous postings because of "cyberbullying" than to encourage anonymity.
I guess I'm a mass murderer then... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, with that user name, it's not very surprising.
Rock (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In the U.S. it's the first sign you're a spook (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
Shit, can you move under all that tinfoil?
And thus it begins... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sociopathy (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Fuck you (Score:2)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
Today's Dilbert is right on topic: SHHHH! It hears you. [dilbert.com] .
I don't like being packaged and sold as a commodity.
Security service inspired story ? (Score:4, Interesting)
I know that the story CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Costs [theonion.com] 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.
Social Networks: Pathetic (Score:4, Insightful)
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 [rossde.com].
Bad Translation! (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Have They Forgotten the Stasi? (Score:3)
Soon ... real soon now ... (Score:3)
... we will have to hand over Facebook account password just to get past airline security. What? No Facebook? Under arrest!
Adultfriendfinder instead of Facebook?! (Score:5, Funny)
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'.
Independent Thinkers Could Be Labeled Suspicious (Score:4, Informative)
So, let me see if I got this right ... (Score:3)
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.
I'm Just A Liar (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
We're all doomed (Score:3)
Facebook claims to have 800 million users. That means 6.1 billion serial killers are out there!
Re:Two words (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:Two words (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, and parent should not be modded down. "Fuck You" is pretty much the only valid response to that bullshit.
Re:Two words (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
But wait, you mean correlation!=causation??????
What's that click I just heard......
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Two words (Score:5, Funny)
A facebook account of an adult with only two friends; both children... best hope the government doesn't find out.
Stupidity rules (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Stupidity rules (Score:5, Funny)
Population problem: solved!
Re:Stupidity rules (Score:4, Interesting)
Ironically, you have more control over your FB presence if you have an FB account than if you don't. Why? Because with one, you can be tagged and set yourself to private, which marginally reduces the information available. Unless you are one of the slashdotters who asserts that because you never leave Mom's basement, nobody will take a photo of you, and if they did, they wouldn't want your cheetoe-stained beard on their profile.
But yes, looking "normal" and not having a FB account is unusual, and probably does corrrelate with insanity and people wearing foil-lined wigs.
Re: (Score:3)
Well, there's one thing facebook participant however isn't usually doing: hiding from cops, taxman, ex's, abusers or whoever.
For any job that requires the persons name and character "to be out there" that's a filter. However you could just ask the people if they're ok with their name being in public...
I don't get though that people who had elaborate homepages and went as far as publishing their houses blueprints, listing their hobbies and how many ticks their cat had on their ol' skool '90s web presence som
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
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.
Re:Two words (Score:5, Funny)
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."
Re: being a mammal = sign that you are a murderer (Score:3)
Oh I know this one! (Satire coming!)
http://www.realultimatepower.net/ninja/ninja2.htm [realultimatepower.net]
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
Re:Two words (Score:5, Funny)
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?
Re:Two words (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:Two words (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
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
Thateassuring (Score:4, Interesting)
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...
Re:Two words (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
"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. Remembe
Re: (Score:2)
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.