After last weeks terrorist attempt to bomb an army recruitment office in Baltimore, Maryland failed, due to FBI officials tracking Antonio Martinez’s facebook page the widespread effects of facebook are reaching new levels. When someone reported Martinez’s wall posts as inappropriate, intelligence was sent to the FBI and Homeland Security offices warning them about a possible terrorist attack. By contacting Martinez through facebook and pretending to be a fellow extremist the FBI was able to prevent the attack and incriminate Martinez in the process. The fact that what we write on facebook may be read by the FBI is scary. They were able to find this man and arrest him through his actions on facebook, a public site. In this case facebook saved many peoples lives and prevented another terrible attack from occurring, yet the fact that they were able to do this through facebook is incomprehensible. Our personal lives are being watched on an increasing scale and the lines between safety and individual freedom are blurring. How far can the United States government go when they are “protecting the publics interest?” Will they insist on placing cameras in our homes like in 1984? I think that because many of us are users of facebook, we should be concerned about who is reading our posts and viewing our pictures; how secure is the “friends only” button on facebook?
This story actually gave me chills. The fact that the FBI can actually end up preventing a bombing is incredible, yet the idea of such an invasion of privacy is an extremely scary one. I use facebook. Almost all the kids I know use facebook. My facebook is my facebook. Is it really a good thing for the FBI to be able to use it to put me in jail, if need be? Like you mentioned with hidden cameras, how far will the government go? Or furthermore, how far should they go?
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I disagree. The "friends only" button must be a hoax. I'm sure anyone with enough computer savvy can bypass whatever firewalls that facebook has. I'm sure that somewhere in the fine print of the agreement that no one reads when signing up for facebook, the fact that the government may have access to whatever you put on the internet is described. For this I am grateful. I am gladdened to know that the government is using the internet as a tool to fight terrorism. If you are concerned about the wrong people seeing what you put on the internet then don't put it there in the first place. Simple as that. People have an inflated sense on how much technology really controls us. We are still the ones with all the power.
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