Alexis Turner

Disturbing trends in social networking

(government, hacks, national security, social networking, sweet jesus — )

12 Sep. 2007

Er....okay, sometimes I scare myself when I get bored at work and decide to type in random search phrases. For instance, I would just like to know if anyone else finds it as disturbing as I do that U.S. intelligence analysts announce their names, what they do, every position they have ever worked in, and a list of all their associates to a public audience on LinkedIn?*

* Please note that it is possible to get names and positions from the example search I link to above; however, more creative searching turns up further details. For instance, try the name of any agency (i.e. NRO or DIA) to get past work histories, thus turning up the names of further agencies to try, as well as associates and coworkers. A person could easily automate this process and have virtually the entire intel community mapped out in one hour.