You know given this age of digital technology, and the socializing of the web, it was all bound to happen. Though the detail on the subject is actually pretty pathetic. In an editorial on the New York Times, it reports:

The government is increasingly monitoring Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for tax delinquents, copyright infringers and political protesters. A public interest group has filed a lawsuit to learn more about this monitoring, in the hope of starting a national discussion and modifying privacy laws as necessary for the online era.

As many of you know about the already abomination to our freedoms with the patriot act, it appears that the local and federal governments are using OUR tax dollars to look for crimes that are actually civil in nature, why 'terrorism' or criminal acts (like child abduction) isn't the main priority really bothers me.

Privacy
Now with this whole new digital age, and especially with this whole so-called web 2.0 craze, people are putting their entire lives online. While not so much in regards to blogs, it is mainly facebook and myspace. While myspace is on it's last breath, it had something that I felt facebook should have, which is anonymity. People could use a different name than their real ones in myspace. In facebook, everyone is referred to their real name (or the name that they put in) and that is how they post and is searched. Not to mention that with facebook becoming more "public" by default, it is a matter of time before everything you do online will be exposed to the general public unless you put effort into securing yourself.

Unjust Searches
The main problem though, is what they are using the technology for, hence;

Law enforcement is not saying a lot about its social surveillance, but examples keep coming to light. The Wall Street Journal reported this summer that state revenue agents have been searching for tax scofflaws by mining information on MySpace and Facebook. In October, the F.B.I. searched the New York home of a man suspected of helping coordinate protests at the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh by sending out messages over Twitter.

In some cases, the government appears to be engaged in deception. The Boston Globe recently quoted a Massachusetts district attorney as saying that some police officers were going undercover on Facebook as part of their investigations.

Wired magazine reported last month that In-Q-Tel, an investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, has put money into Visible Technologies, a software company that crawls across blogs, online forums, and open networks like Twitter and YouTube to monitor what is being said.

As it is obvious that these tactics are questionable in what the real purpose of it is. Now there is this theory that the more people are public, the more private each individual becomes because of the amount of information there is. I beg to differ though, as with the increased technology, the increased data mining and archiving capabilities come available. And with actual law enforcement agencies putting this information to actual use, it means that any form of bullshit or sarcasm suddenly becomes the truth. I mean it may come to the point of someone hating the government and commenting how they wished someone would assassinate the president, thus triggering the web crawlers, and a warrant is issued... Good bye freedom of speech.

Corporate Watch Dogs
The sad truth, as congress constantly change the laws due to lobbyists, our government is becoming nothing more than corporate lapdogs being lead around by each corporations personal agenda. Why do you think copyright infringement is illegal? Does copyright infringement hurt anyone? does it cause physical pain? No and No. Copyright is fucked up in general because it gives the right of companies to own an individual's art and criminalize an individual for having it "without the corporations approval". Copyright infringement is really nothing more than a civil case. If the law system was just, then copyright could only be own by its creator, and it is merely meant to protect the name.

What about the IRS? looking for tax evaders? that's legit right? because the IRS is government... This is kind of a tough one, but the IRS is not owned by the government, as it is independent much like the Federal Reserve, and there is still some questionability whether the federal tax is legal, but the supreme court throws out any case brought to them anyway, sounds pretty pathetic. Maybe it makes sense for local government, but again IT IS A CIVIL CASE, I don't know why these tax issues are looked to as criminal, thrown in the same pool as child molesters. But I guess the government agencies need their money.

I guess this is just a train wreck to watch. I have already dealt with people who put so much pathetic faith in the government with the line "If you aren't doing anything wrong, then you don't have to worry" missing the whole point of freedom of speech and freedom of information, but those individuals are the first to go down. Maybe I am paranoid, but this is why I stay away from posting with my real name.

Thanks to EFF for the information, an organization that should be supported by everyone