Be Excellent To Each Other

I got a big written reply - I'll scan and post it at some point.

Hopefully they'll all set up auto-forwarders and someone will start spamming newly-criminalised "extreme" porn mails to them along with a bit of randomly-encrypted copyrighted music.

That pile of ironing isn't going to get done by itself.

What?

Ironing / irony.

Oh wow.
The irony is amazing.

But still kudos to 'em.

I'm probably being thick here and I've never used Facebook but what does the article mean when it says this: "a business whose raison d'être is the monitoring and retention of communications data". How does Facebook work, I'd just guessed it was by adverts but is it something more sinister?

They sell user data. Not sinister, because you said they could when you signed up, but not nice.

Stiil, it's not like the government are going to drive a Humvee through the Data Protection Act or anything.

...

Oh, wait.

http://p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/blog/2009/01/coroners-and-justice-bill---information-sharing-orders.html

Overblown and conspiratorial - but basically true.

But yeah, FB generates revenues by creating a database on you (including sources outside of facebook that it finds out about you independently) and then uses that to generate revenue.

Selling the data to companies basically.

Eww, I'll not be bothering with that then.

I'm only on it due to the social aspect of the course being administered that way.

Ditto.

Emos

Ah, the Greek god of self-importance

This is true of all advertising driven firms, of course, including Google. And Facebook doesn't actually make any money either, because whilst it would like to sell that data, no-one wants it.

Hahahahah!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/27/imp_consultation/

Don't worry folks, the ISPs will do it, and the government will pay. It's not like we're short of cash or anything.