Facebook Patented Making NSA Data Handoffs Easier 137
theodp writes "In June, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg blasted 'outrageous press reports' about the PRISM surveillance program, denying that Facebook was ever 'part of any program to give the U.S. or any other government direct access to our servers.' What Zuckerberg didn't mention, and what the press overlooked, is that the USPTO granted Facebook a patent in May for its Automated Writ Response System. Like the NSA-enabling systems described by the NY Times on the same day Zuckerberg cried foul, the patent covers technical methods to more efficiently share the personal data of users with law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in response to lawful government requests via APIs and secured portals installed at company-controlled locations. 'While handing over data in response to a legitimate FISA request is a legal requirement,' the Times noted, 'making it easier for the government to get the information is not, which is why Twitter could decline to do so.'"
Re:At least now we know the real Mark Zuckerberg . (Score:5, Interesting)
... and I am glad I never waste any of my time in fb
Indeed - the ony thing more amazing than people putting personal shit up on a public website is people putting personal shit up on a public website that's owned and run by a known sociopath.
Doesn't matter - FB has entered a death spiral (Score:5, Interesting)
As go the teenagers, so goes the industry.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/10/teenagers-messenger-apps-facebook-exodus [theguardian.com]
With all this social networking shit, perception is key: once FB is no longer consider cool or the "in-thing", it's fucked. Like Myspace fucked.
Automated means unsupervised (Score:5, Interesting)
If it's automated, it means there's no way a person checked the warrant before giving access.
So whether its legal or not is moot, since Facebook are *trusting* the LEA's claim that its legal, regardless of whether it actually is.
I wonder if Microsoft provides a backdoor portal to Windows PCs? I bet they get far more demands, and they probably would automate it too. I know that telephone companies made telephone tapping automated. A law enforcement officer simply taps something on a screen and can tap any US phone from his desk anywhere in the country. That has the same problem, nobody checks that the court issued warrants limits are complied with, because nobody ever reads it.
Misleading title (Score:5, Interesting)
Cooperating with the NSA to give unrestricted access to private data (aka PRISM) is completely different to complying with subpoenas. Facebook got a patent on the latter, but not the former as the headline suggests.
If you have a problem with FB giving over your data in response to legal requests then take it up with the agencies making the requests, because Facebook don't get a choice in the matter.
Re:At least now we know the real Mark Zuckerberg . (Score:5, Interesting)
At least now we know the real Mark Zuckerberg ...
We've known the real him for a while now:
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks.
http://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-ims-wont-help-facebooks-privacy-problems-2010-5
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Misleading title (Score:3, Interesting)