Despite awaiting extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is still the subject of much media interest.
Russia Today (RT) interviewed Assange, getting his viewpoint on political unrest in Egypt and Libya, particularly probing what the Wikileaks founder makes of social media’s roles in the recent revolutions in both countries. In his interview, Assange focuses particularly on Facebook calling it the “most appalling spy machine that has ever been invented”.
Explaining in more detail, Assange affirms:
Here we have the world’s most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations, their communications with each other, and their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to US Intelligence.”
According to Assange, it doesn’t stop with Facebook. He believes the social network is joined by Google, Yahoo and other major US organisations that have “built in interfaces for US Intelligence”:
It’s not a matter of serving a subpoena, they have an interface they have developed for US Intelligence to use. Now, is the case that Facebook is run by US Intelligence? No, it’s not like that. It’s simply that US Intelligence is able to bring to bear legal and political pressure to them.
It’s costly for them to hand out individual records, one by one, so they have automated the process.
The Wikileaks founder then warns Facebook users, stating that if a user adds their friend to Facebook, they are “doing free work for US Intelligence agencies, in building this electronic database for them”.
The full video has been embedded below, Assange’s thoughts on Facebook, Google and Yahoo begin around the two minute mark:
Assange says his website’s revelations are “just the tip of the iceberg”, adding that it’s only a matter of time before more damaging information becomes known.
Its perfectly true that all social media has been hubspot for intelligence agencies to take all privacy data
Yep. Its about time someone with influence spoke out about the Facebook issue.
The very same reason i never spend much time on these websites.
If only the zombies of this day and age would actually listen to julian….
so what? if you’ve got nothing to hide, why worry?
that is so…..dumb! do you work for the United States?
I’m glad we make it easier for our governments to understand us. Cuts down on taxes.
Assange has gone cuckoo!
Forget the US intelligence! What about the basic privacy and security of the Facebookers
who are excited about revealing to the world everything about themselves.Criminals now have a hefty database to plan and attack.
Social media is good provided it is used wisely and with personal censorship.Don’t bare yourself to the world.Especially one needs to be careful posting personal photos.Take care before you enter the BOOK!!!!!!!!
There are soo many people who don’t understand this power Facebook has.
If intelligence agencies can collect data about friends, links and stuff, they can construct a huge interlinking of every person on the planet, creating a digital profile for every man.
Now, who is in charge of this intel agencies ? The political people and the hidden rich people that rule the world.
And it’s very easy to control 20000 nodes from a command line.
Its an interesting point to bring up, but one thing is for sure, criminals don’t have a facebook page because they have something to hide. At the same time, there is also much truth in saying the intel agencies call the shots and American corporations still avoid taxes, cause major environmental destruction and are currently held less accountable than ever before. If you fight the system, they can take you down at a blink of an eye thanks to command lines. The CIA created the internet in the first place, its all a part of the plan.
Don’t join FB then! Everybody who is on FB should know by now that you give up more of your privacy. I thought that’s what the all FB is about. Share everything with everybody. What would be the point to go on FB and don’t share anything??
By the way, how easy is it to become a FB-friend with somebody completely strange to you and then check out his profile. You don’t need a college degree or you don’t need to be a CIA spy to be a profiler yourself.
For instance, in my country our government uses FB as a tool to control tax payers. They ask you to become friends with a fake account and then they check out your photos and personal shit. Be ware if you said in your tax declaration that the trip to the China was a business trip but on your FB-photos you, your wife and kids are smiling at the camera, Chinese Wall meandering away in the background, not good!
why they need facebook they have whole icann and echelons.
So true.
It’s a good thing Facebook is for idiots.
Won’t the government’s Facebook interface just crash when they run a query? It does every time I do. Worse yet, won’t all of those Mafia Wars requests just crash their servers or piss them off so much that they log off?
Finally! Somebody who doesn’t mind that I have installed a webcam in their toilet! I mean … if you have nothing to hide … why worry? Right? Nobody really needs privacy, do they? Everything about everyone should automatically become public knowledge immediately, right?
Wrong.
Your statement worked once, back during the rise of the Nazis and continuing through the Communist Hunts of the 1950s, but now we know that the government MUST respect individual privacy, because if they do not, then we become a fascist, totalitarian State with NO personal freedoms.
Now do you worry?
Wow this makes a lot of sense dude wow man.
Unfortunately, the people that most need to know how dangerous Facebook can be will never read this. They are the same people that click every malicious and let people tag them in photos of shoes.
malicious link*
I’ve had suspicions for over a year when I learned that Mark Zuckerberg, FB creator, was up on disciplinary charges for hacking Harvard’s computer system. Then he surfaces in California receiving al kinds of cash investments. I checked a little further and saw that three of his board members had worked for the Treasury and Justice Department. It is easy to assume that he cut a deal when some intelligence agency took an interest in what he could do with a social platform. And what I feel the feds like about this is that everything is typed by the account holders, like a personal admission or confession. For political activists, its easy to determine who are enemies and who could be used to undermine one another credibility. Threat assessments can be made through associations and how far it extends. Technology assures no one has privacy in any form.
but facebook already has my info…so deleting it now means nothing.
Why not show facebook they can be beaten and that their violations of users privacy for personal profit will not be stood for!
some of my friends are working on a site if any of you are interested, it’s called Tribus and we aim to offer a better and safer online experience. You can register a user name today with your email address, then when the site lauches then you’re all set to go :)
Lots of people have issues with facebook, I myself would like to stop using it, but it’s the only real way I am able to keep up with my friends and family which is why I can’t wait until Tribus launches, then I have a safer and more ethical alternative!
http://www.tribus.mobi lets BE THE CHANGE!
What country are you from? And how do you know they do this? Do you have a source?
Even if this is true, any evidence found on your FB profile shouldn’t be admissible if obtained through dishonest means (ie. fake account). But depends on what country you’re from and their laws.
@thedevelopertutsdotcom But if all people have on their Facebook are their favorite TV shows and bands, what’s the point? It’s not like people save or post their credit card info, pin numbers, or social security numbers on their profile. Practically speaking, do people really need to be afraid?
Everyone has something to hide….you just may not know it.
Let’s say you post that you went to an AA meeting to support a friend with a drinking problem….
It is now recorded that you were at AA. If someone reads that about you out of context they may assume YOU have a drinking problem and NOT hire you for your new shiny job.
Still think you have nothing to hide??
It’s HOW the data may be used and by WHOM in which CONTEXT. You just don’t know how something you think is harmless could come back to bite you.
Cheers
Scary thought, but what about this: if you play games on FB, you have to allow the games’ site to access not only your info, but it can access the info of whoever is on your friends list, if i understand the terms and policies bit. So even if you don’t want to play games so that your stuff isn’t spread all over, your friends can do it for you, just by allowing the gaming sites access. so much for privacy, And some of the sites are not “secure”. We are a nation under watchful eyes of big brother,nosey so& so’s…i won’t call them what else just popped into my mind
More damaging information about Julian? Most of us really don’t care because we aren’t hiding huge amounts of untaxed tax money or anything.
and why would we care abt that if we arent any drug dealers/serial killers/terriorists ?
It’s sooo true …it’s all about media and defying ignorance as well as the people who are always trying to distort the truth for their own benefits ! Knowing is the key for all these catastrophes ! We got to know the truth about everything so as not to be mislead !
if we have a good media environment then we will also have a more peaceful environment i love that guy
how do you know that, in the future, you will will need to clear your name. Maybe you are set-up. All that information can be used against you.
@odin @thedevelopertutsdotcom what can be done with a profile.. a lot. For example, if you are in trouble, it would be easy to predict who you would turn to and where you would go. Scary stuff.
Think about the following: 5% of users generates 75% of FB content. 50% of users entered into FB only once without any post. 90% of relationships in FB are reflecting to 10% only in real life.
Think about the following: 5% of users generates 75% of FB content. 50% of users entered into FB only once without any post. 90% of relationships in FB are reflecting to 10% only in real life. Do you believe that IA are interested in the information with such quality?
The Media,for me are a total joke-in particular the news media. Surely,every thinking person is fully aware that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not reported from the perspective of wars for the control and exploration of the regions vast oil and gas reserves.This is seldom even hinted at ,and is not included in the debate about the reasons for retaining troops there.Rather it’s about bringing democracy to the people and fighting terrorism.There are more people killed every day by slipping over in the bathroom than die of terrorist attack.And for that they’re spending billions a year.Come off it–give us some credit for intelligence!
Interesting the 2 min mark in the video where he starts talking about Facebook being the worlds biggest SNITCH