Friday, December 28, 2012 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
(NaturalNews) They are convenient, relatively easy to use, and help millions of people around the world stay connected with family and friends, at least digitally. But social media portals like Facebook and Twitter are increasingly being exposed as what appear to be bait-and-switch spying networks funded, and potentially even run covertly, by theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other government agencies. And this is all apparently being done for the purpose of gathering real-time data on the private lives of individuals willing to freely post such information for the world to see.
It is something that serious investigative journalists and skeptics alike have suspected for years, especially as sites like Facebook have gradually and quietly eliminated users' access to the privacy controls that once kept their information "classified" by default. Today, Facebook is literally an open book of information that is freely available not only to the rest of the internet, but also to numerous government agencies that many years ago invested millions of dollars to make social networking sites like Facebook what they are today.
Venture capital firm that ensured Facebook's success linked to CIA front groupWhen Facebook was first getting off its feet, it turns out, the company received a huge cash injection from a venture capital firm known as Accel Partners. According to reports, Accel's head, James Breyer, was a former chairman at National Venture Capital Association, where he served on the board with Gilman Louie, the CEO of another venture capital group known as In-Q-Tel.
According to In-Q-Tel's "Mission" page, the group, which invested nearly $13 million during Facebook's early days, was first launched in 1999 as a catalyst for keeping the CIA up-to-date with the latest information-gathering technologies. Not surprisingly, the primary purpose of In-Q-Tel is to "build relationships with technology startups outside the reach of the Intelligence Community," and partner with private sector groups who are willing to "co-invest in [its] portfolio companies." (http://www.iqt.org/about/mission.html)
If you connect the dots here, it becomes clear that Breyer's expertise is in connecting the CIA with private enterprises like Facebook and Twitter that focus on gathering information, whether it be for marketing or some other purpose. And it appears as though the CIA front group In-Q-Tel saw a unique opportunity to use newfangled social media to gather intelligence in a completely new way, without actually having to gather it at all, at least in the traditional sense.
"We have to look at where the seed money came for these social networks," explained investigative journalist Wayne Madsen to RT back in 2011 about the CIA connection to social media. "We do know that the Central Intelligence Agency through In-Q-Tel, its venture capital firm, provided a lot of seed money for many of these companies that developed these social networking operations and programs. So people have to be aware that when they put personal information online, they're basically doing the CIA's job for them." (http://youtu.be/gAPcG29Mf70)
If you use social media, Big Brother may be watching youThe moral of the story here is that nothing on the internet is private or sacred, especially when it is posted on social media. You can be sure that Big Brother is actively monitoring the activities of social media users continuously, and compiling this data for total control purposes. The good news; however, is that you always have the option to completely delete, not just deactivate, your Facebook account:https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account
Be sure to also check out this fascinating diagram called "The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook," keeping in mind that things have only gotten worse since 2010 when the image was last updated. (http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/)
Sources for this article include:
http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/
Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/038491_social_media_CIA_spying.html#ixzz2Ggk55GJw
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