Facebook

Unfortunately, shortly before signing the contract for my book I discovered I had breast cancer.

Having to concentrate on writing focused my mind away from lingering on this fact too closely. And with all the excitement of finally having it published and its promotion I barely had time to think.

However, radiotherapy does leave one exhausted. So when I returned to Mallorca I was ready to hide away and concentrate on rebuilding my strength. There were also rather a few other major personal issues taking place in my life.

It never rains but it pours is a cliché that could well describe my life then. But that is subject material for my next book.

While I was convalescing I received an invitation from a friend to join Facebook. He thought it would be a useful tool to help me publicize my book. I accepted and joined. What I saw appalled me.

Many years ago in the mid 1980’s, a friend of mine and Howard’s, Tom Sunde, who had connections with the CIA turned up on our doorstep. He had with him various documents that he claimed he had procured from the DEA. One of these documents named almost everyone we knew, from the family doctor, various dodgy characters to the children’s baby-sitters. The DEA had obviously painstakingly gathered all this information.

Read my book to find out more

Mr Nice and Mrs Marks: Adventures with Howard

As I looked at Facebook this memory came flooding back. No longer would the DEA, CIA or whatever government agencies have to labour away at proving these connections. People were readily supplying huge amounts of data about themselves.

I wondered if users understood how their information could be used or if they understood the limits of any notion of privacy "controls" online.

Many friends of mine have said they know more about their children from facebook than they do from normal family interaction!!

Facebook currently holds the personal information of about 58 million users. For obvious reasons in this post 9/11 age, social networking sites will remain an attractive source for government surveillance and data-mining.

And supposing you have inadvertently listed a criminal suspect among your 800 "friends", would this enable the government to lawfully search, arrest or even charge you with conspiracy.

To watch more videos about facebook go to Youtube.

What are your views?