Facebook Linkidin Twitter etc. Versus J.Edgar Hoover

I can’t resist this. Can you believe we have reached a point in our Country where the biggest stock offering is going to be Facebook? What exactly does Facebook produce? Oh, you got my point. Facebook doesn’t make a damm thing you can put your hand on. It's going to make a ton of money because you are probably a member and they can custom target advertising that you wont be able to resist. Amazon does that already with me and it’s ”One Click” seducer.

Getting back to J. Edgar. Far fetched, you think? Yes I did too until I began to compare what Hoover’s, 700 page FBI File on me says and what Facebook or Google could say about me. When Hoover was collecting information on me he primarily had four different sources. Tapped phones. Physical surveillance, Informers, Intercepted mail. Physical surveillance meant sending Agents to record what I said at a meeting or actually approaching me for an interview. The latter consisted of this clumsy, “Hi, Bob can we talk to you? It’ll only take a few minutes of your time. So, has your family? Daughter doing well over there at Music and Art.” All that sweet talk was suppose to soften you up by showing how friendly they are and yes we already know a lot about you so why not tell us about some other people we happen to be interested in?

840 million members on Facebook Linkedin 135 Million Members. I get repeated invitations to be somebody's “Friend.” Often, no most of the times it’s not a person I’m even familiar with. Usually I click yes. Why? Underneath I am really sorry for people who have to create lots of friends through social networking. You know Facebook wont accept more than 5,000 friends? Isn’t that too bad? Now think about all the stuff they know about you. Oh, maybe it’s my McCarthy years paranoia that worries me about how much information the Digital Network is collecting about us?

Then I began thinking about all the various present day institution who have been collecting data on me for years. First there’s my credit cards. Then there’s Facebook, Linkdin. Google they all have loads of information about my, purchases, (books movies, DVD’s) looked at all together one could easily figure out my politics, my relations to other like minded people my movements, who I visited with, who I might have shared a trip with. What I published and who visited my blog.

Hoover had to get a court order to tap my phone. I can buy a unit in Radio Shack so I can listen to other peoples cell phone. So can the Social Networks. Yes, they target my advertising based on my digital purchasing. Google has stuff about me that comes from 3rd hand sources. Quotes of what I was supposed to have said in somebody's book. Yes you want a State that can easily trace your every move? We got it.

Oh, you think it doesn’t matter because it was the Internet that launched the Arab Spring? On balance would you call this information gathering an asset or a liability? Yes I know there are lots of folks who believe it was the Internet that was the mobilizer of those hundreds of thousands that took over Tahrir square in Egypt and similar places across the Middle East. I agree that the Internet can be a great, instant protest organizer.

Yes, I wonder? Is that what takes the sting out of the Protest? Precisely because it vented the anger? BUT the protest had no real plan for what kind of change it wanted. That’s what is happening in the Middle East today. There has been no clear program for the protesters to fight for. Ahhh yes, except for the Muslim Brotherhood. Their very existence is evidence for what I am talking about. So there’s the rub. Yes the Internet is a remarkable organizing tool. It may be acting as a pressure relief valve letting off steam from angry citizens. It also may become a critical source of socio political information that can be used egregiously by government forces controlling an angry citizenry. Not an easy choice.