Giving the F.B.I. What It Wants

In 2002, Hasan M. Elahi was stopped in at an airport in Detroit on the way into our country. After scanning his passport, the immigration agent led him back to the I.N.S. office to be interrogated. He was suspected of participating in bomb-making and being involved in the 9/11 attacks that year prior. For the next six months, he was frequently brought into the F.B.I. headquaters for followup interrogations and polygraph, or lie detector, tests. Six months later, he was finally told that he was clear of any suspicions, and he was free to go about his life as he had before. Shortly there after, he was set to leave the country on a trip. Nervous about returning and running into the same problems as before, he informed the officer of his plans. The officer told him to send him the numbers of the flights he had scheduled, and that he would take care of everything. Well, Hasan did just that.

He began sending the F.B.I. everything he had. Any information he had about trips he was taking, planning, or even already had taken were sent to the bureau via a website he set up purely for that purpose. He poured information on the hotels he stayed at, the food he ate, and even the toilets he used onto his website. He uploaded pictures of everything he did onto it, the entire time thinking, "You want to watch me? Fine. But I can watch myself better than you can, and I can get a level of detail that you will never have.”

Many people have critisized him for it; why would you pour yourself and your life onto the internet, for all the world to see? What could you possibly gain from that? Well, by uploading so much, he actually gained a level of privacy few people have. With everything out in the open, the F.B.I. and other agencies have nothing on him. He's left alone because of how public he is; the only information the government is interested in is that information that people try to hide. By hiding nothing, Hasan blends in more than most. And now, with Facebook and other social networking sites, the people who once critisized him are most likely hypocritically posting pointless statuses and uploading stupid pictures now. Nothing really is private anymore.

You Want to Track Me? Here You Go, F.B.I.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/sunday/giving-the-fbi-what-it-wants.html?pagewanted=2&ref=opinion