Cover up your Face(book)

by Alan Tyers

Our Government has done it again: the latest weapon in The War On Terror is… monitoring Facebook.

You might well ask which terrorist organisation is writing, “The Spear Of Allah is planning to blow up Paddington” on its Facebook wall, or if keeping a watchful eye on social network drivel is an effective use of security forces’ time.

Or you might if you weren’t in Government, at least.

Even if – and it’s a big “if” – there was much to gain from analysing chatter on social networking sites, would it be worth the huge cost and time involved?

The Government says it will not monitor content, but will just keep data about who has been talking to whom.

This seems, if anything, even more pointless. Surely even would-be terrorists are plagued by idiots they thought they had ditched from secondary school pestering them on Facebook? Not everyone talking to Suspect A is going to be of interest, and knowing who talks to whoever else is only any use if you know what they are saying.

Given this administration’s record on the handling of sensitive electronic data, who could bet against some junior wonk leaving half the country’s entire social and private online life on a train somewhere?

And that’s to say nothing of the civil liberties angle.

It seems a terrible idea: bandwagon-jumping, impractical and costly. No doubt bids are being invited right now….