Facebook to be monitored by government

I see some people are getting their knickers in a twist over plans which could see the government monitoring social networking sites like Facebook in the fight against crime and terrorism.

Some, such as Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake are concerned, and he said: "It is deeply worrying that they now intend to monitor social networking sites which contain very sensitive data like sexual orientation, religious beliefs and political views."

I suppose one question is: has anyone who choses to live their life in public got any claim to privacy any more?

The Facebook ethos is everyone can see everything.

People complain about the CCTV culture in our towns and cities but then stick up pictures of themselves wearing hardly anything or drunk out of their skulls.

A lot of people seem unable even to make the most rudimentary privacy settings meaning all their information, pictures and videos will be available to anyone.

And don't forget, if you die in a bizarre and horrible fashion, The Sun, (or *ahem* your regional paper) may well illustrate the story with a picture of you. Drunk. From Facebook.

The problem with all this government snooping is that they WILL end up misusing the legislation.

Other anti-terrorist measures have led to octagenarians being ejected from Labour Party Conferences and then arrested, and councils using the laws to monitor if people's wheeliebin lids are open more than an inch, along with many other examples.

Below: Would you want this to be your epitaph? Some people's privacy settings suggest they wouldn't mind if it was.

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