Slashdot Log In
British Police Use Facebook to Gather Evidence
Posted by
timothy
on Sun Apr 20, 2008 02:39 AM
from the nothing-at-all-creepy-about-that dept.
from the nothing-at-all-creepy-about-that dept.
Amy Bennett writes "Move over police scanner and most-wanted poster. The Greater Manchester Police force has created a Facebook application to collect leads for investigations. The application delivers a real-time feed of police news and appeals for information. A 'Submit Intelligence' link takes a Facebook user to the police Web site where they can anonymously submit tips. Another link leads to the videos on YouTube featuring information on the police force, ongoing investigations and other advisories." As reader groschke writes, though, "Their access to user data raises significant civil liberties problems. They may be able to see more of your data than your friends or network members can — and you also expose your friends' data when you add the application. All without needing a subpoena or warrant."
Related Stories
[+]
Facebook Sharing Too Much Personal Data With Application Developers 165 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Remember the Facebook News Feed privacy uproar? What about the Beacon scandal from late last year? Privacy activists are rallying around yet another major issue at Facebook, in which the company is secretly sharing user data with third parties. Researchers from the University of Virginia recently announced that in a study of the top 150 Facebook applications, more than 90% were given access to information that was not needed to function correctly. That Scrabble or Superpoke application you really like? Its developers get access to your religion, sexuality and home town. Facebook's position was summed up by Georgetown Law Professor Dan Solove, 'They seem to be going on the assumption that if someone uses Facebook, they really have no privacy concerns.' Do Facebook users deserve privacy? "
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
No . . . not really (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless Facebook has given these people a special little hack into their API they can't get any more then any other facebook app can, and depending on your privacy settings, can turn out to be not much at all.
and... (Score:2, Insightful)
I might give it a look, if only to get a handle on what all the knee jerk armchair reactionists are complaining about
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, people. It's a social website, a public website, and it doesn't need any of that information -- it's not like you have to use facebook to make internet purchases. I've never understood people who put information at places like that. Of course your privacy is going to be invaded. That's the damn point of the site... if you don't want the world to know it, don't transmit it over an unsecured connection to a website with a crummy privacy p
The Future of Policing (Score:5, Funny)
TELEPHONE TRANSCRIPT:
Victim: Burglars have been at my house and it's been ransacked and my five year old daughter has been kidnapped!
Police officer: Hold on, how do you spell your name again *tap tap tap tap* .. oh wait, Google's working now.. whew!...
Victim: There's blood on the kitchen floor and..
Police officer: Yeah yeah.. whatever.. oh, I found pictures of your daughter, she was on facebook.
Victim: Facebook?
Police officer: But I'm afraid we have no leads. She hasn't used her facebook account for a while.. oh well, sorry about that.
Victim: So when am I going to see a police officer?
Police officer: Well you can chat to me online.. do you have Yahoo?
*CLICK*
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
They don't see any of MY data, because I don't use Facebook.
It's a simple choice between vanity or privacy.
Re:No . . . not really (Score:5, Funny)
Seargent Smith, please indicate how you know Mr. Badguy:
( ) We went to school together
( ) We hooked up
(x) I arresed him on felony charges
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
"He accidentally fell down some stairs over and over again with his hands cuffed behind his back."
They loved that during the 80's.
Re:No . . . not really (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're referring to the fact that the police are actually fallible, meaning they aren't criminal-catching robot people who get it right 100% of the time, then I think you're the one with the problem here, not them.
Mistakes are made, things happen, and sometimes it's really, really shit and someone dies because of it. However, to pretend that the few mistakes they make cancel out the incredible amount of solved crimes they manage, even under the incredible crippling that the Labour government has inflicted on them with their target-based performance system, is disingenuous.
Parent
Re:No . . . not really (Score:4, Informative)
I hate to break it to you, but unless the crime is something pretty serious (think armed robbery, murder), the solving rate is depressingly low. As in no higher than 30% for many forces.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
YMMV of course depending on the area you live in.
Re: (Score:2)
Most of the forces covering more urban areas had figures more like what I said originally.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe I lived the sheltered life down in Devon, but neither of those things are exactly common occurences.
Perhaps not as extreme as the examples given, but the so-called anti-terrorism legislation is widely abused and used far too often for things that have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism.
For example, just a few days ago, there was a story on our local news about how a local council literally had spies watching a family covertly for several days to determine whether they really lived within a school catchment area. They did. The surveillance was apparently triggered by a random tip-off that someone
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Uhhh...so? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm as slippery slope as the next guy, but I see a huge difference between information placed on Facebook and limitles wiretaps. Or unreasonable searches. Or your passenger having $10 in pot can lead to the police taking, and selling, your car.
If you're trying to dodge an arrest warrant, well, perhaps you shouldn't be posting on Facebook, or driving erratically, or advertising on TV, or accepting that offer for free (insert whatever tickets/crap the police come up with).
Re: (Score:2)
Well at least somebody gets it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
1) You must actively choose to install the program -- that is, you must opt in to get the app. However,
2) once installed, you must opt out of various privacy negations. By default, this app will have FULL access to everything you have posted.
Re:Which is why... (Score:2)
Actually I don't because I don't have an online social site anymore blog or Facebook, but my point is that if people were smart, they'd not post incriminating information and if they were really smart they'd make shit up. Back in the day before Myspace and even Livejournal I had an E/N blog which I realized family and friends were reading so I would mak
People are making it way too easy (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Anonymous? (Score:5, Insightful)
Somehow I have my doubts that any "anonymous" tips would really be all that anonymous...
The problem is with facebook, not the police (Score:5, Informative)
Alright, we obviously don't understand what either of these are.
A subpoena is a court order for information. If you are able to provide it and don't, there will be trouble. This doesn't mean such information can't be handed over voluntarily at any time.
A warrant grants a privilege to the police to forcibly obtain information they would otherwise not be allowed to obtain through force. But you don't need a warrant when you have cooperation.
The best example I could give probably is this: you need a warrant to tap someone's phone line. You *don't* need a warrant to put a microphone on an undercover agent and try to cajole the information out of the guy, or to bug a hotel room and arrange a meeting there, or to go knocking door to door at the guy's neighbors' houses making inquiries.
Your problem should be with "Facebook" who is currently selling out its homies to cash in as an informant.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Taken way out of context (Score:3, Funny)
Pretty simple here people. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do you hate freedom so much? (Score:5, Insightful)
i'm not seeing how this is a privacy or civil rights issue. how about these people put their efforts to a better cause.
The obvious recursion is ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The obvious recursion is ... (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, #1 is don't post anything publicly that you wouldn't say to your own mother (says the AC, ha ha).
But I'll bet this can be exploited, and will be in the future.
Parent
Re:The obvious recursion is ... (Score:4, Informative)
If a policeman is asking you questions, the chances are he's investigating either you or someone you know. Consequently, it is never safe to give information to a policeman, unless you know that they aren't trying to get you or anyone you care about.
The same, of course, goes to anyone and anything that can be rasonably expected to be trying to "catch" people: all intelligence agencies, insurance companies, private investigators, people in the middle of a nasty divorce, etc.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
And There's a Civil Liberties Issue How? (Score:5, Insightful)
Nobody has any expectation of privacy (reasonable or otherwise) in information they put on a website that is publicly accessible to other people.
If you write on a friend's facebook wall about how you got this "killer deal on pot" or how you "got this totally awesome handjob from a local hooker" and police find out and charge you, it's your own damn fault for being an idiot.
Furthermore, if you buddy wants to play confidential informant and sell you out to the government, that's a problem between you and your buddy, not between you and the government.
If you don't want police (or anyone) prying into your business, don't make information about said business publicly accessible.
Re:And There's a Civil Liberties Issue How? (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, it's the law's fault for making these harmless actions crimes.
Parent
licence to goof around at work? (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder what the quality of the "leads" they get will be. I would expect it's more likely to be from disaffected children using facebook who are annoyed with something their friends have done and report them out of spite.
Personally I think this looks like one of those great ideas that was dreamed up to make them look trendy and "in touch". I'd give it 6 months before it's quietly dropped under an initial tide of spam, false leads and time wasters, followed by complete and utter apathy.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
No wonder the general public is so hacked off - when police stats. show that they spend less than 13% of their time actually out of the police station, catching criminals.
This isn't really the police's fault. Government 'targets' are set in the most meaningless fashion possible to ensure that real crimes remain unsolved and less policeman have time to actually go out and arrest criminals. When they do, it's worth just as much to them to give a guy a caution for having weed on them, as it is to stop a pub brawl or prevent a murder.
The damage needs to be repaired at the source before the police can finally prioritise to doing real work.
And yes, I agree this idea is useless an
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Consider this:
Police officer: person who is difficult to recruit, needs training to be responsible for special powers (arrest, driving too fast etc.) expensive to run due to equipment needs.
Administrator: very common, easy to recruit, no special training needed, cheap to employ.
It makes no economic sense to use police officers to do menial administration tasks. An efficient organisation would have people using their specialisations and leaving the unqualified work to cheaper, low
other sites... (Score:4, Funny)
If it's on the web... (Score:2, Insightful)
What are we really policing here? (Score:4, Insightful)
Since it seems unlikely people on Facebook are going to confess to be being a major drug trafficker, or show video clips of their last home invasion rape and robbery, I can't really see the value to society of wasting law enforcement resources clogging up the criminal justice system with the parade of Facebook petty crimes.
I don't know about the UK, but here in the states our criminal justice system is full. We have enough people in jail, more than enough people getting tagged with arrest records over fairly minor infractions. We need law enforcement to focus on the big problems and not be looking for reasons to dump some otherwise law-abiding person into the criminal justice meat grinder because they copped to some petty crime in Facebook.
And we need to de-criminalize a wide swath of drug possession crimes. We're spending billions keeping people in jail for a few oz's of pot. It's really quite insane.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Since it seems unlikely people on Facebook are going to confess to be being a major drug trafficker, or show video clips of their last home invasion rape and robbery, I can't really see the value to society of wasting law enforcement resources clogging up the criminal justice system with the parade of Facebook petty crimes.
In the UK we seem to have plenty of stupid criminals. A group of people beating someone up while filming it on their mobiles, and posting the evidence on social networking sites seems to be a common habit amongst our more detestable yoofs.
I don't know about the UK, but here in the states our criminal justice system is full. We have enough people in jail, more than enough people getting tagged with arrest records over fairly minor infractions. We need law enforcement to focus on the big problems and not be looking for reasons to dump some otherwise law-abiding person into the criminal justice meat grinder because they copped to some petty crime in Facebook.
And we need to de-criminalize a wide swath of drug possession crimes. We're spending billions keeping people in jail for a few oz's of pot. It's really quite insane.
Yeah and Amen, brother. Good luck getting anyone in power to listen to the evidence though.
If it was only the police force (Score:2)
Re:someone please distill what facebook actually d (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'd assume the adverts are targeted yes, but I don't actually know because I have an ad-blocker installed. You can install 'applications' and then choose how much information you wan the application to install, and then you get asked (or sometimes required, which is a pain in the ass) to invite a bunch of friends to install the app. Bebo does the same thing.
I also have adblock installed, but when I occasionally browse facebook from other computers, I noticed something interesting: after changing my Relationship Status to "In a Relationship" (from the previous "Single"), I suddenly stopped seeing adds for "meet a woman" websites. They vanished completely, whereas before it was all I ever saw.
Could be a coincidence. Could be.