Comments on: Facebook

By: Lewis archer

Lewis archer — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:21:14 +0000

Thanks so much for the movie. I think the potential for totalitarian use of
Data is a real danger even now;though there are some good things about
It all. Blessings on your family!

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:08:59 +0000

Hi,
If this is David, I’d like to say I really enjoyed your documentary on this endemic surveillance society we live in today, I’m 19, and studying conceptual art; your project has been of great help to my research. I would love to investigate and follow through in a second project of my own at some point; I find the subject very interesting and intriguing!
How has the project changed your life? In the documentary you said you will be more careful with your children’s information, but sadly, do you not think it is necessary to surrender and give-up some of our privacy in order to live in this society : /
p.s. I’m considering deleting my Facebook and all social networking profiles i have, but I suppose the damage is done now isn’t it?

Thanks again,
Sam

By: David Bond

David Bond — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:46:51 +0000

Thanks Tapio! Really glad you enjoyed it.

I did send “subject access requests” (official letter under UK law that asks what data someone holds on you) to both Google and Facebook. Facebook just didn’t reply (I suspect they think that because they are based in the US there’s no reason why they should comply with UK data protection laws). Google did reply but only to say that they could not give me details of what searches I’d undertaken because I probably have a variable IP address so they would not be sure who I was. I checked with my internet provider and it turns out that I have a fixed IP address which has been the same for a number of years. I wrote back to Google and told them this. They said what about other people in my house? If they told me all the search terms that my IP address had requested then it would infringe the privacy e.g. my wife. So I got my wife to send them a subject access request. Then they said that if they sent the data it might infringe the privacy of people who’d visited my house. Their argument is that they can’t tell who actually did the search. I asked them if they’d release this information to the police if I was suspected of a crime – and they said they would. So basically they hold data on my internet searches that they won’t tell me about but which they would tell the police about, if necessary. Hmmmm.

The bottom line is that much of the value in the businesses of Google and Facebook comes from the data they hold – and they don’t want to show that data. I guess if we saw it we might question the value of social networking relative to its costs – and certainly we’d ask ourselves whether we should be using scroogle (http://www.scroogle.org/scraper.html) rather than google…..

Best,

David

By: Tapio

Tapio — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 19:32:05 +0000

Hello David,
and greetings from Finland.

Your document broadcasted in the national tv in Finland some weeks ago, and my friend recommended it to me. It´s viewable till April 5th in the web http://areena.yle.fi/video/1299359669960. Maybe you are interested in seeing how does look with Finnish subtitles:-)

I really think your document is an eye-opener, thanks for it!

Before seeing your doc, and especially after it, I have been thinking how enourmous amount of infomation of individuals Google and Facebook have, process and handle in general; actually I am quite a bit concerned about the fact that Google, for instance, knows so much about us and our behaviour.
That one single commercial company is managing so much detailed personal level information about us.

I have a simple question for you, David:
in your document you sent 80 letters to different sources in order to check what data these data banks have collected about you. Did you asked and received replies from Google and Facebook? As far as I got it right, you did not mention that in your documentary.

These to companies do not clearly say what data they collect from us and what do they do with it.

All the best for your current/next documentary, I’m very much looking forward seeing it.

Cheers,

Tapio
Finland

By: David Bond

David Bond — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:52:33 +0000

Hi Allie, yes this is David – thanks so much for your comments, and for watching the film (although it sounds like you were captive in a class at the time – nice of your English teacher to play it, please say thanks…..)
I was genuinely freaked out during the making of the film – I have to admit. That was mainly because I kept thinking that someone was about to grab me – which they were, I suppose, so it wasn’t really paranoia (where you fears are ungrounded) but rather justifiable nervousness. Did you find the language easy to understand?

By: Allie

Allie — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:14:32 +0000

Hi,

If this is David Bond, I would like to tell you that I watched your documentary in my English 12 class and really enjoyed it. It was kinda scary though, that those guys had tons of infomation on you in just a matter of days. I was just curious on what was going through your mind, when the whole thing was going on. I know you state in the movie that you did go through paranoia, and that had to be a hard thing. Please write back.

Sincerly,

Allie