Canadian military officials have recently told soldiers in Afghanistan not to post any personal information on social networking sites such as Facebook. The logic behind this advice is to protect soldiers back home (as well as friends and family in their network) from being targeted by terrorists.
Exactly what type of "targeting" is the Canadian military worried about? Is this just precautionary, or are soldiers being harassed in their own homes by sinister Al Qaeda operatives protected by the anonymity of Facebook? Certainly enough personal information could expose someone to identify theft. But beyond that, how can Al Qaeda target or attack an individual soldier via Facebook? If soldiers are vunerable, how vulnerable is the rest of the population? CBS reported that an internal memo from the Canadian military states "Al Qaeda operatives are monitoring Facebook and other social networking sites"? There has always been an issue with the degree of privacy that social networking sites provide. Now that terrorists are in the mix, will this change the debate?
I'm sure this will become an increasingly important issue in the coming months and years. For now, I am just trying to avoid a super poke from Osama bin Laden.
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