NSA To Datamine Social Networking Sites

An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist has discovered that the NSA is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in Internet technology -- specifically the forthcoming 'semantic web' championed by the Web standards organisation W3C -- to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals."

First Post

[teratogenicbenzene]

First Post!

And what has the NSA learned from this?

That I'm a lazy, self-aggrandizing slashdot reader with way too much time on my hands.

I feel safer already!

[gasmonso]

It's good to see such huge advances in domestic spying instead of things like stem cell research.

http://religiousfreaks.com/ [religiousfreaks.com]

Hey I like it!

[hrrY]

I may *want* to be data-mined...think about the promise of a genuine advancement in online-speed-dating. Or maybe they could start a service that datea-mines, hmm, the possibilities. Although, does that include or not include those my tier? I don't date anyone outside my tier; there's principalities.

Myspace

[Rob T Firefly]

Thanks to MySpace, the NSA now knows that there are far more 18-year-old bisexual cheerleaders named Tiffany out there than anyone ever realized, there is a very good reason so many musicians never get record deals, and everyone in the entire world is in your extended social network (especially that creepy mutant Tom.)

Re:First Post

[maxume]

Not to mention inept...

I for one ...

[srobert]

...welcome our neocon overlords.

Re:First Post

[cyber0ne]

with way too much time on my hands

That's nothing! You should see what they're finding in MY hands on the internet!

Osama does!

[morgan_greywolf]

When was the last time that you saw a terrorist on a social network like MySpace, posting hints about their desire to terrorize others?

Why, just today, in fact. See [myspace.com]? ;-)

The NSA is out of control...

[Futurepower(R)]

The NSA is out of control and should be stopped. Hear that, NSA?