UK spooks poke Facebook for new spies

@Robert Grant

"I use Facebook as an easy way to see friends' photos (I don't have many of me on there); to tell people things that they wouldn't normally hear until a long time later; and to have a bit of fun."

Hahahahahaha. You use Facebook.

Delicious troll, must not eat..

@Robert Grant

The escalating levels of paradox between; your criticism of the article, the articles criticism of the choice of HM's Rockin' Unspecified Services, my criticism of your criticism, the heretofore following criticisms and accusations of hypocrisy, and the moderatii's eventually eye rolling is genuinely causing my head to hurt; so I will take the gentlemans way out, and politely ignore you.

It is a sad state of affairs when it can be a genuine and founded hope that the best and brightest (or at least the better and less dim) the country produces can be firstly expected to be found on social networks, secondly expected not to have not inconsiderate levels of ad fltering and thirdly not already have more lucrative and less soul destroying career prospects. What is even more disheartening, is that it will probably work, and the less than demonstrably superior specimens of edumacation will be responsible for doing something that not everyone can do, probably with less than sufficient oversight.

Why they dont just steal/blackmail people who already have the skills they need is beyond me.

James Bond is having lunch with Ivana Humpalot

Guess it's one way of keeping track of your spies.

Next they'll be Twittering their location on their GPS enabled phones.

On a serious-ish note though re Facebook. The (only) value I see in it is as a replacement for Friendsreunited now no one bothers with that.

It's fairly tame if you just stick to the odd few people you know well and would like to keep in contact with. Hence I have few friends on Facebook! :-) (well I just have no friends full stop).

@@Robert Grant

Oi, I'm out in the real world. Hardly ever in the house really. And, I use Facebook - with a high IQ might I add (that's not a claim that English is one of my strengths after a day at work).

And, I still don't have any friends!!!! How do you do it?

Or, on a more serious note - I live a long way from where I used to. To keep in touch with old friends is actually a nice thing to be able to do.

And, no, I don't block ads. Pictures of scantily clad females coming up for an advert keeps me happy.

@AC

Erm... AC... for someone who does not have a Facebook account, you seem to know an awful lot about it. Admitting your problem is the first step to recovery. =D

I will own up to having a Facebook account (I was forced into it - I swear! ;) - it's not too bad once you get it configured to block out all the white noise. I've moved around a lot, and it's handy for keeping in touch with old friends, etc. There is definitely a generational aspect to it though - how my older FB "friends" interact with me and how the younger ones (read: Gen Y's) do really couldn't be more different. For that and other reasons, I actually find it kind of interesting on a, I dunno, sociological level.

Manna?

"Heaven help Facebook users if a half-decent Turing AI gets loose on the 'Net...." .... By Anonymous Coward Posted Monday 29th September 2008 14:32 GMT

And QuITe Probably Also Spun to be So, AC. :-) Let IT Be v2.0?

Looks like they are after shills

One of the sociology tricks is to take an event and lessen or emphasise certain things, by getting people to put out a logical but perhaps less than honest appraisal of events.

If that is coming from what you perceive to be another common person then the chances of you taking on that information is greater, than if it comes from say a news source nowadays.

People have become sceptical, and they know that news places withhold information at the behest of military intelligence and other security services.

So, really they are looking for puppets where they can control what is said at certain times for a few slivers of silver, and a paw mark on the official secrets act.

It is actually a bit double edged, because it will take emphasis off common sense views when discovered, tarring all with the same old brush and all that, which is where this is ultimately probably heading.

Though MI6 is meant to be for foreign operations, but hey who knows now perhaps we are the foreigners in our own country. They are not looking for white code in reverse.

Facebook and the like is probably profiled as being non tech, if you cannot upload information yourself to the net they are not after you for your elite facebook form submission skillz, they are after you for your gob.

People who don't use facebook

All those people who think they are so clever not to use facebook are the same sort of troglodytes who dismissed the internet, computers, mobile phones, telegrams, writing, fire, etc. When you get over yourself and realise that it is merely a means to an end and actually aids communication and socialisation you might finally see the benefit.

YOU may well see the 5 people you know on a daily basis and have no need to see what they are up to but for my generation at least, getting a decent job and being able to afford to live requires more flexibility about where you are located than ever before. My friends are scattered across the country and facebook is an excellent tool not only for arranging events but for keeping in touch with those day to day things that you simply wouldn't bother to mention in a phone call. Those things ARE important, it is those things which really keep the familiarity and stop you from drifting apart.

When you talk to people on a daily basis do you add in pointless chit chat or do you cut that out and say only what is necessary like a lifeless robot? The same applies to pokeing and the rest of the add on junk. It is not quite as pointless as it first appears.