Poking poker and software for spies

12/10/09 posted by Liz Niland

An American woman has been arrested for allegedly “poking” a fellow Facebook user on the ubiquitous social networking site. The poke violated the restrictions of an Order of Protection (similar to the Australian AVO - Apprehended Violence Order) placed on Tennessee woman, Shannon D. Jackson.

For the uninitiated, a poke via Facebook does nothing more than inform the poked user that the action has been performed. For Jackson though, that action was classified as breaking the order’s term that there be “no telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating with the petitioner”.

Although Jackson faces up to 11 months in jail and a fine of $2500, it’s good to see that the legal system is slowly catching up with technology, as also evidenced by this month’s Twitter-delivered injunction.

Not just for contacting colleagues, friends and family, specialist social networking sites are also used by spies looking to share intelligence with other agencies. More secure than your average wiki or Myspace fan page, the Intellipedia wiki system and the Twitter-like Chirp, enable spies to collaborate when gathering information about suspicious activities.

Spy-friendly software hit the news this week when it was reported that two of the community’s most trusted and popular networking sites - uGov and Bridge - would be forced to hand in their badge and rifle. Even though the login to these sites is no doubt stronger than the average Hotmail password, concerns have been raised about the security of sharing sensitive information online. Will we see the return of disguised secret agents whispering code names in the darkened nooks of beer-soaked bars?