'Google for spies' software mines social networks!

[karl]

New software which mines data from social networks to track people's movements and even predict future behaviour poses a 'very real threat to personal freedom', civil rights groups warned today.
Multinational defence contractor Raytheon has developed the 'extreme-scale analytics' software which can sift through vast quantities of data from services like Facebook, Twitter and Google.
Critics have already dubbed it a 'Google for spies' and say it is likely to be used by governments as a means of monitoring and tracking people online to detect signs of dissent.


Full story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2276862/Google-spies-software-mines-social-networks-track-users-movements-predict-youll-next.html#ixzz2KbIwDad2

[Silicate Wielder]

Why? Isn't the internet supposed to be a free place? this is just insane. I'm going to get to work on making a private internet mainframe and start routing it privately because of this, well mostly because I just want to try it out :P

[Apollo.]

I think it's quite a smart way of the governments doing it(if this is what they are doing). Not many people can go without using Twitter or Facebook, I know I couldn't, I feel too out of touch with my friends without social networks and every party, cruise and day out is organised over facebook within my group of friends. I see it more as 'if you have nothing to hide who cares?' I understand the principal that being watched is unnerving and annoying but there's no real harm in it.