Monday, March 11, 2013

Social Media for a Police State

From the Guardian:
The police are also finding powerful allies in Silicon Valley. Companies such as Facebook have begun using algorithms and historical data to predict which of their users might commit crimes using their services. Here is how it works: Facebook's own predictive systems can flag certain users as suspicious by studying certain behavioural cues: the user only writes messages to others under 18; most of the user's contacts are female; the user is typing keywords like "sex" or "date." Staffers can then examine each case and report users to the police as necessary. 
Big Brother friended you : )

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1 comment:

Bob Kemp said...

Great article.