your favorite conspiracy theory?

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I can actually imagine that one being true if I am completely honest. To be fair to the people that believe that, there is empirical evidence to show that Facebook has sold much personal information about its users to the CIA, so it is not all speculation.

That the CIA thought it up is nonsense, but it is sobering thought provoking nonsense.

Big brother is not smart enough to have dreamed up Facebook, but both Big Brother (governments, corporation etc), and little brother (criminals) can theoretically mine facebook for all the personal data that we all gleefully serve up to it about ourselves. Facebook could, a probably does, serve Big Brother under the table to some degree in this post 9-11 age.

But the web also helps fight big brother-witness the Arab Spring. So maybe it all evens out.

But

Yes, and then in the future, probably come up with more profound insights into our personalities based on the information we choose to reveal about ourselves on the sight. Just out of interest, why do you say they are not smart enough to come up with something like that? I am not saying I believe in such a theory but it does not seem like an intelligence agency would be so stupid as not fail to come up with something like that?

The really sad thing about the Facebook/CIA thing is that there's all the more reason for it to be true from this perspective; somewhere during the 1990's the US government made the decision that it would no longer allow internal moles and FBI/CIA informants to have criminal records, hence they disbanded most of their overseas intelligence network, this hurt us badly in our ability to collect intelligence on plans for intercepting terrorist plots. We had the brilliant idea that we would make up the difference by monitoring their cellphones, something that one of our stellar, I mean stellar, slices of human genius in congress at that time glowingly told the press, the world, and I'm sure many a clandestine organization who put that bit of information to good use.

That said I get the feeling that if any terror cell of any type tried to use Facebook as a means to collaborate a plan they'd be on a sort of criminal Darwin Awards for being that stupid. On the other hand does that mean it necessarily wouldn't happen? You do hear occasionally on the news where the police have been looking for a guy and he shows up on Facebook bragging about where he's at and what he's doing, the police click the 'like' button and go grab him. In a way law enforcement would be insane not use it, the question really is how much do they care to see if someone's admitted to having psychedelic experiences or are talking about minor illegal things they've done via private message - ie. hopefully no one's going to private message a friend "I rolled my face off this weekend!" and get a knock on the door from the police stating that they're being arrested for admitted prior possession of a schedule one substance.

What I tend to worry about a lot more, and it's been written up on Yahoo that it is happening - employers are looking for ways to look at people's Facebook pages and no doubt they're far more fickle than the police, ie. it's a whole new level of cultural discrimination waiting to happen. Particularly now, talking to one or two of the law enforcement guys in my martial arts class, that there is a new type of Facebook related device or cookie that parents can use to track their children's private accounts and open and see their contents, PM's and all, without any sign of entry. If that's the case it stands to reason that employers would have just as much access to such things and that there would be no such thing as a 'private' profile anymore - happen to like death metal? Did you laugh at or comment at a friend's off-color or dirty joke? Did you drop a few choice words from Biggie or Pac in with your emotional check-in with your friends? A guy or lady in a corner office might be breaking in to your profile to see if they'd hire or fire you based on that. Ethical arguments have raised that if a boss doesn't follow their employees to the corner bar after work to hear what they talk about they shouldn't be on Facebook browsing private conversation even if they can - I've noticed any argument on most any technology of "You can but don't" generally tends to be 'taken under advisement'.

Only a bunch of fun loving, but enterprising, college students (like zuckerberg, and his friends-turned-enemies) would dream up a social networking ap like that. Someone setting out to have fun, and then later, to make bucks providing a service to others looking for the same thing. The CIA is not a business serving customers. So its just not what they do.

The CIA would think in terms of "how can we invade privacy and get away with it?" or "how can we build a better fly swatter?" Not "how can we make bucks creating a tempting flower and nectar to ATTRACT the flying bugs to us." But once someone else creates that flower -then- yes they would love to comandeer it.

What about the one where Jim Morrison's death was faked so that the Illuminati could secretly recruit him in Paris to stage as a Persian Shi'ite cleric who would eventually become the Ayatollah Khomeini?

Yes, this is an actual conspiracy theory. I defecate you not.

I'm somehow not surprised - even though Morrison and the Ayatollah looked nothing alike.

No Shi-ite?

Any self respecting paranoid can see that Ringo Starr, and Yassir Arafat, were twins seperated at birth.

But the Ayatollah Khomeni and Jim Morrison? You gotta be paranoid AND blind.