"into a personal relationship with the third party/group member."
As if there aren't enough opportunities for official cyber stalking.
A Scottish council has published a new policy paper which justifies its "investigating officers" creating fake accounts for snooping purposes on social media, though it denies ever having conducted such covert surveillance. Bordering the city of Edinburgh, East Lothian Council has published a nine-page Surveillance through …
True. The correct policy, which would have satisfied the law, would have been "It is not acceptable for any member of the council to create a false social media profiles for the purpose of their employment. Anyone found to have done so will be dismissed, and appropriate legal investigations begun. Anyone who knew about it and failed to report it will also be dismissed, and legal options considered." It could also put in a statement about use of information found through social contacts of any type outside of work, too.
The fact that the council didn't do this undermines their argument that they would never do it.
Wouldn't deliberately creating an account with false details be in breach of Facebook's user agreement, and therefore constitute unauthorised use?
Wouldn't that in turn be illegal under the Computer Misuse Act?
If the want information on peoples' Facebook account, they should get a secret court order and/or intercept the data like all the other agencies seem to be doing.
The legality is suspect, but surely this fails the basic moral sniff test:
- Would I want someone to investigate me in this manner?
- Would I do this to a friend or family member?
- Would I want this on the front page of a national newspaper?
- Would I want this detailed on my CV?
It's not so much the investigation of criminals that is the issue, but the investigation of people who are *not* criminals. We have the police to investigate possible crimes, we do not need council jobsworths who fancies themselves as being a budding Sherlock Holmes sticking their oars in. Things such as putting rubbish in the wrong bin are not serious enough to justify such deception and intrusions of privacy.
I can understand why you'd say with that kind of thing being bandied about by the London centric media.
But there's a massive hint that the council isn't led by the SNP in the Scotsman story: no political party is mentioned.
Actually the majority of councils in Scotland are not controlled the SNP - again something that some might find surprising in a "one party state"...
As it turns out, East Lothian council is led by a Labour/tory/independent coalition: http://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/info/695/council_information_performance_and_statistics/625/who_runs_the_council
That type of arrangement is actually far from uncommon.
It is not clear in what circumstances a covert identity would be necessary to access the information contained in a private group on Facebook. RIPSA legislation already allows for a wide number of authorities to seek the info directly from Facebook.
Presumably it's for when they seek to entrap a suspect into revealing something that Facebook really would not have any details on after weaselling their way into their lives - "I conned them into paying for kids I did not have and for a house I did not own. Have you ever pulled a fast one on the council and got away with it?".
Yes, this is a perfect answer for why in 2016, we will tell you that your experience is totally out of date and you are no longer employable, despite all that "valuable mainframe experience" in the 70s... go and get your pension granddad... and let the current generation who understand social networks actually talk sense instead of your sweary old nonsense.
Are you sure that your syrname isn't 'Clarkson'?
As for retiring because my experience is out of date?
Are you kidding. My 30+ years of connecting all sorts of stuff up and making it work pays very well. Why should I retire when I'm earning close to 6 figures a year? And, I'm enjoying myself as well.
A lot of you young whippersnappers are still wet behind the ears when it comes to large scale integration design and implementation. The cost of the buildings and plant on my present project is well in excess of $450M. This is a far cry from making a few webpages or a phone app.
Ah! Another 16 year old numpty who thinks he has all the answers because he is, well, young!
The people who really understand Social Networking are the ones who invented and own it ( Mostly not so young) and are making billions out of the 'Generation That Understands Social Networks' like you.
Tell us about your day, did you have a good experience in the toilet this morning or anything else that is life changingly rivettingly important?
Jeremy, I was going to throw a tantrum at you for that, but then decided to click on your name and see what you had to say before (very social networky of me, wont you agree?), so I'll just write this off as an attempted sarcasm, or pointing out how HR drones work now in an exaggerated way.
I was asked for my FB account as well at applications, and was frowned upon when explaining I didn't have one, and even if I did I wouldn't accept "friend" requests from non-friends.
Anyways, if I was a job hunter and got a resume which fielded "understand social networks", I'd find them a nice job as a internet cafe desk admin at most.
Now if it was "understand how social networks work, technically, and how to keep things secure", they might have a chance to do something more useful.
@Jeremy
I've been challenged at interviews for not having a social media profile (of any kind) before.
However, when I explained that since they were hiring me to design the security for their entire global network and the less people knew about me the better, they got the point.
There's nothing that shouts 'breach of contract' quicker than being targeted by state-level hackers so they can take all those designs of their actual target and use them, nefariously :)
"the less people knew about me the better"
Just over a decade ago you could search the internet for "Secret Project" + CV and get all the main engineers involved. They'd boast about it online, perhaps inadvertently through recruitment agencies.
In 2003 I found the main engineer behind the UK's '4 minute warning' of a nuclear attack. Brian Dreary. I wanted to trigger the warning, at least for high ranking officials, but I was persuaded by a wiser soul that was irresponsible and potentially dangerous.
For the record, at that time at least, the 'four minute warning' consisted of a pre-recorded telephone call to every British land-line, telling you Armageddon was imminent but not to panic. Guess whose voice they used to reassure us? Joanna Lumley!
Good choice. My plan was to either steal the recording or hire a voice impersonator, and call all the key folk just to panic them into heart attacks. I was talked out of that but I sort of wish I had.
"Highly unlikely" does not cut it. Government has no right to do spy on citizens, period.
Take whatever lines concerning this practice out and clean up the practice.
Change "is highly unlikely to" to "is legally obliged NOT to" and things will be slightly better.
" ... a policy must be put in place to include all eventualities even if they are not used."
So how about "entering into a personal relationship with the third party/group member" in meatspace, not cyberspace? As practised by the Met Police.
It's an "eventuality", so what does their policy say?
I actually did have someone try to break my door down this morning (well, afternoon) - it was the police.
Sent by mental health services. I told the police to fuck off. They were good about it. They had their time wasted too. All because someone wanted to be passive-aggressive. These fuckers have power. Don't deal with them. Especially if you have problems. They are incompetent and dangerous. I'm talking about any of the council government services now. Not the police. I criticise them elsewhere, but here I have nothing but good to say about them - lovely ladies they were.
Last time I had the police breaking my door down was when my stalker called them from another country. Same shit, different day.
I have never once had the police darken my doorstep for any other reason what so ever.
I wonder what the neighbours think? All these police turning up, hammering at my door, me with my headphones on and sleeping. Yes, last time I had my headphones on and was sleeping in the day when they came. This time too. I just send them packing. They must think it is a new way of dealing with the police, just tell them to do one and they go away. Perhaps they see more as a hero than a paedeophile. Guess I'll never know as they never talk to me.
Whatever next, getting S.W.A.T.T.E.D. by the fucking council coz you had the temerity to request the bin men don't chuck all the bins all over the floor after we have lovingly stacked them up and ordered them for them?
I spent about 20 hours on the phone to them and suffered much abuse. And the best part is, like your local housing association, they can access your medical files, if they feel like it.
You jest, but...
Sorry, this one rung a bell with me (or rather reminded me of my door coming off it's fucking hinges at 2pm in the afternoon when I was trying to get some shut-eye).
I'm ok now. Thanks for listening. As you were. It was a bit of a shock, but I'll get over it at some point...
Thank you for your sincere concern on an otherwise traumatic day JJ Carter.
The GP has nothing to do with the meds. Besides, I don't take meds as they are absolutely totally irrefutably useless for dealing with my extremely rare condition: Not being a bastard in a society full of bastards.
Bitter, maybe. But I don't torture kittens, and I help old people across the road, so I can't be that much of a fucking menace to others.
However, make an out of place comment to an authority driven jobsworth, because you are on the spectrum, and well, get a rude awakening.
Thanks for taking the time. I'll tell Dr. Payne you sent me.
My new Facebook friend told me that if I falsified X on my application, I could get benefit Y from the West Lothian Council and "totally get away with it".
Getting East Lothian residents to claim benefits from West Lothian Council would be a neat idea, at least for East Lothian Council. I wonder if that was their plan all along.
Who knew they were as 'into' the fascist totalitarian thing as much as everyone else?
Like the named person scheme, where perfectly happy healthy kids have to have a guardian of the state, up to 4 of them in fact, to check that they are being treated well at home, that their gender issues are being dealt with in a serious manner by their parents, that they got jam on their toast that morning, and that mummy and daddy don't smoke lots of dope before having it off in the greenhouse.
This is fascism. This is totalitarianism. It can have no other name.
They had the power a while back, and then they worked out the best way to abuse that power with impunity.
The message is clear: Do not go on fcukbook. You will be tracked. Do not go doing anything without knowing, we are watching you, and we have spies, you know. In fact, don't even go on the internet, except for when we tell you to sign in for the daily 2 minutes of hate. And we'll know if you do go on the internet. Because we are watching every single little thing you do.
Be seeing you....