Patriot Act Bypasses Facebook Privacy

Geoffreyerffoeg writes "An article from the National Association of Colleges and Employers contains yet another horror story about a prospective hire's Facebook being checked — with a different twist. The interviewee had enabled privacy on his profile, '[b]ut, during the interview, something he was not prepared for happened. The interviewer began asking specific questions about the content on his Facebook.com listing and the situation became very awkward and uncomfortable. The son had thought only those he allowed to access his profile would be able to do so. But, the interviewer explained that as a state agency, recruiters accessed his Facebook account under the auspices of the Patriot Act.' How can a 'state agency' use the Patriot Act to subpoena a Facebook profile?"

Re:If the job...

[toleraen]

It's not likely they'd do that thorough of an investigation, unless the job required Top Secret (unlikely for an internship). Something tells me a bored manager was going through google (or some other web crawlers) caches of facebook profiles, since the article stated he had only very recently put a block on his site. There was likely a cache somewhere on the web. Also, it stated he knew someone in the office. Could have been possible that the boss required he (or the friend willingly did so) show him his facebook. /shrugs

"yet another"

[Syberghost]

Interesting wording, since it leaves out the fact that the last one turned out to be a hoax...

Yeah its in the Privacy Policy

[geddes]

From The Facebook Privacy Policy [facebook.com]

We may be required to disclose user information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We do not reveal information until we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the Facebook service or using the Facebook name, or to prevent imminent bodily harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.

On the one hand, it is easy to say faceboook was just obeying the law and it is the patriot act that is flawed. On the other hand, facebook seems to have noo qualms about this sort of stuff.

There are Conspiracy Theories [commongrou...nsense.org] claiming that Facebook's initial funding was from DOD connected venture capital, and that it is a remenant of Total Information Awareness.

Facebook links to eTrust from their privacy policy. Would it be effective if all of slashdot lodged complaints using the eTrust form? https://www.truste.org/pvr.php?page=complaint [truste.org]

Write to your elected representative

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't like it, write to your elected representative.

Explain how this PATRIOT Act they passed has been abused to invade the privacy of law-abidng American citizens, and done zip to catch terrorists.

Write to your write to your elected representative. Write to your write to your elected representative. Write to your write to your elected representative.

WRITE TO YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE.

Only probably?

[jd]

Have you ever seen the paperwork for a secret clearance? Yeesh! They want everything - and I mean everything - for the past 5 years. 7 if it's top secret. IIRC, the form not only asks about you, but also about your relatives, your friends, your bosses... They'll randomly track down and interview former neighbors. Those applications are thorough. Stupid but thorough. If you're dual-citizen, it can take two years plus for them to process the paperwork, they're that paranoid.

So what would said paranoid individuals do, when confronted with a blocked personal site? Ignore it? Yeah, right. I don't agree with what they look for - it seems questionable as to whether it has any relevance to whether the individual can be trusted - but it's blindingly obvious they'd investigate obviously hidden data.

For "confidential" clearances, the rules are different. There, a fingerprint check with the FBI and a routine background check seems to be sufficient. That can take a week or two, but it's nothing like as extreme.

Re:If the job...

[ZachPruckowski]

Google doesn't search Facebook profiles or cache them, as far as I know (and I've tried to Google for my own).

Re:If the job...

[ehrichweiss]

googling "site:facebook.com" says differently. It's also possible that archive.org was a player in this as well(haven't checked the way-back machine to find out yet).

Re:Subpoena?

[geminidomino]

Doesn't look like it. googling on "Site:facebook.com" just shows the interface pages that anyone can see (FAQ, signup, etc...). Looks like they at least know how to set up a robots.txt

Re:If the job...

[stfvon007]

I do know people that had to get Top Secret clearence for an internship with the government. Its not as uncommon as you think.

Re:Oh, I'm sure it's okay

[StarvingSE]

Yes, but what legal agreements are in place between facebook and it's users? (I personally do not know, don't use facebook, if someone knows buzz in anytime). One should be able to trust facebook's privacy controls since it states that they are a licensee of the TRUSTe [truste.org] organization. The service provided is a supposedly private place to collaborate with classmates on a social level, where privacy is restricted by the user. It seems pretty clear to me, based on facebook's own policies, that a user should have every expectation of privacy.

Re:curious

[BugDoomBug]

Some companies require this for direct government contracts AND projects that may become government proposals. Basically it helps in the "pitch" process to have all those involved already have a security clearance to prevent post development leaks.

Additionally some companies may require it just as a matter of good corporate security.

Re:Only probably?

[GileadGreene]

If you're dual-citizen, it can take two years plus for them to process the paperwork, they're that paranoid.

If you're a dual-citizen then you can pretty much forget about getting a secret clearance. DoD policy (as of about 2 years ago) states that dual-citizens (regardless of what other country they are a citizen of) will be denied clearances unless they give up their non-US citizenship.

Re:If the job...

[Anonymous Coward]

Looking through a googling of "site:facebook.com" shows only the public pages with information about facebook. I didn't see any user profiles.

Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

[techvet]

Two quick points: 1. Car dealers requires SSNs for the Patriot Act on some purchases. Even casinos are involved in this kind of stuff as well. Don't believe it? Visit http://www.bridgerinsight.com./ [www.bridgerinsight.com] 2. Earlier this year, I told my older kids not do anything with MySpace.com if they don't want their past to haunt them. Same thing applies here with Facebook.com. With Google + archives + cache, there's lots to see. Job holders and hunters: what you do on the Internet stays on the Internet, and stays, and stays, and stays... TechVet

Re:If the job...you got it!

[Anonymous Coward]

I was hired at a health care company in 1977 (Upjohn) and by the end of a 3 month probation, they had interviewed my parents, half the kids in my high school yearbook, most of the teammates of my college track team, my paper route customers, and numerous relatives.

To what end? To see if I had EVER used illegal drugs. Would someone say I had taken even one drag of a doobie? I hadn't, and nobody lied or exaggerated. OK, I was a social retard, but very studious and smart.

The FDA mandates that any employee in the ethical drug industry be immediately fired if an accusation of illegal drug use is made. Just an accusation! And without recourse, the courts are not permitted to hear a case of wrongful discharge in this instance, Congress took it out of their jurisdiction.

You people have no clue what's going on.

Re:All your trolls are belong to U.S.

[Achromatic1978]

coughs up info like that without a subpoena I *will* sue the shit out of them

What, they're going to detour your flight to Guantanamo Bay via your lawyer's office to lay the foundation for your civil suit against your ISP for privacy breaches?

Re:Remember when 'Papers Please' meant Nazi offici

[Politburo]

You're a fucking idiot. Go read some history and you'll learn that the Germans didn't go from a republic to a genocidal dictatorship overnight.