If You're Part Of An Elite Military Unit, Perhaps You Shouldn't Be Uploading Photos Of Your Base To Facebook

from the just-a-suggestion dept

Wed, Apr 23rd 2008 11:52pm — Mike Masnick

People who have grown up with social networking type sites and applications have become used to the idea of really documenting their lives with them: providing detailed updates and regularly uploading photos of their activities. That's great for most folks -- but if you're in an elite military unit in a war zone, that might present a problem. An Israeli soldier has been sentenced to 19 days in jail after the military noticed that he'd been posting photos of the base where he was stationed to Facebook where anyone could see them. You would think that it would be common sense not to do such a thing... but common sense sometimes isn't so common.

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Filed Under: israel, military, photos, secrets, social networks
Companies: facebook

27 Comments

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Yosi, 24 Apr 2008 @ 12:37am

Common sense in military
Common sense? In military? Are you kidding?
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Shohat, 24 Apr 2008 @ 12:49am

Common sense is not uncommon in IDF actually.
To remind you, our pilots never take their helmets off. This has a reason, "written in blood" so to speak.
So yes, military does have common sense here.
Apparently, individuals in the military have less of it nowadays.
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NickJ, 24 Apr 2008 @ 12:53am

Worse than that...
...and even funnier, he was in an intelligence unit! Hahaha!
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Milskin, 24 Apr 2008 @ 12:58am

Elite
TFA says that he "was serving with an elite intelligence unit"

By definition the guy should be re-assigned, not jailed.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2008 @ 1:18am

he is probably showing pic's to frieds so together they might be able to search the web for an updated map, driving directions are usefull as well... global positioning.. is important you would think ?
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Devil's Advocate, 24 Apr 2008 @ 2:42am

Re: Elite
The two are not mutually exclusive.
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online casino, 24 Apr 2008 @ 2:44am

photos
with digital cameras and camera phones location based photography is definetly on the rise . if people want to expose a site or weapon or any technology these cameras can be used
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 24 Apr 2008 @ 2:49am

All Your Base Are ...
No! Please stop hitting me! Arrrgghhh!!!
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Jake, 24 Apr 2008 @ 3:19am

I'm in two minds about this one. If the photographs reveal anything useful to the enemy, fair enough, but if it's just stuff like him and some friends in ordinary fatigues standing together on the parade ground then it's probably fairly harmless.
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Shohat, 24 Apr 2008 @ 3:44am

Re: Jake , wrong
Technically (and this was enforced much better earlier), Israeli soldiers should never publish photographs of themselves in uniform w/out approval, for many reasons.

One being due the simple fact that many are socialist over-educated hippies that travel the world a lot (especially pilots and combat unit soliders), and if kidnapped, it eases their identification as former IDF soldiers.
It's not only about protecting secrets, it's about protecting soldiers themselves.
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Lisa Westveld, 24 Apr 2008 @ 4:02am

Common sense
Common sense is a scarse commodity and someone seems to have patented it so others can't use it without paying a hefty license fee...
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Just Me, 24 Apr 2008 @ 4:06am

RE: # 9
"If it's just stuff like him and some friends in ordinary fatigues standing together on the parade ground then it's probably fairly harmless."
Not the point. Who decides what's harmless or not? Things like this can't be screened before upload so it may have seemed harmless to him but could *potentially* have had something sensitive in the photo, even inadvertently.
Since the military can't police which photo's are ok when some photos would not be ok they would have no choice but to do a blanket "No Photos" rule for anything military.
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Pete Valle, 24 Apr 2008 @ 5:54am

Even funnier
It would have been even better if he had published his exact location with Google Earth...
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Matt, 24 Apr 2008 @ 6:00am

media hype
The thing is, lots of israeli soldiers use facebook to show photos....this is way out of line to flip out about, really.
The court went way out of line to punish for this.

Security of the base compromised? No. There are places of compromise where you are not allowed to take photos, and the military doesn't take pictures of them/nor will they let anyone else.

I have pictures of an Israeli base on my facebook from when I went there, and pictures with the soldiers...and they told us there are specific places you DO NOT take pictures. In the base entrance = irrelevant. At the frontline in the base = relevant. Taking a picture of an APC = useless. Taking a picture of the inside of an APC = very relevant.
They know this stuff and follow it bigtime. ...about photos of themselves in uniform that not only is useless but unenforceable.
Really, how hard is that to follow?

Unless they broke that, which would mean it was a stupid soldier, they knew damn well where pics can and can't go. But to just generalize that soldiers can't be in pictures, or you can't have pictures of a base, is unenforceable and unrealistic.
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Shohat, 24 Apr 2008 @ 6:27am

Re: media hype
Everything is enforceable. You throw the first 500 that publish photos of themselves in uniform to Jail (and I have been in Israeli jail for 14 days, it's not that bad), and you have 90% of the problem solved.

Cheers.
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Miss Theda, 24 Apr 2008 @ 6:38am

Duh
It should be uncommon sense. this i just plain stoopid to me
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Matt Bennett, 24 Apr 2008 @ 6:40am

yeah, it's not like they threw him in jail for 10 years or anything. It's a slap on the wrist, "we're not kidding" kinda punishment, which seems fine. I wonder if he was demoted or kicked out of the military. The article doesn't mention, but that'd matter more to most soldiers than 19 days in jail.
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Lol, 24 Apr 2008 @ 6:49am

Israeli Intelligence
Isn't Isreali elite intelligence supposed to be like one of the best in the world?

It's hard to picture what the others must be like.
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wasnt me, 24 Apr 2008 @ 7:08am

for once
they didn't blame facebook, when saw the subject line i was expecting something along those lines.
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Alimas, 24 Apr 2008 @ 7:24am

Re: Re: Elite
Stupidity and intelligence aren't mutually exclusive?
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chris (profile), 24 Apr 2008 @ 8:15am

Re: Israeli Intelligence
Isn't Isreali elite intelligence supposed to be like one of the best in the world?

you're thinking of the mossad. if you think intelligence organizations should conduct political kidnappings and assassinations, then yeah the mossad is the best in the world.

the guy is part of an intelligence unit in the israeli air force.

military intelligence is different from national intelligence, just like intelligence in the american air force is different from the CIA or the NSA.
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Monarch, 24 Apr 2008 @ 9:45am

Re: Worse than that...
An Intelligence Unit is ACTUALLY, an Intelligence Gathering Unit. Apparently he was spending more time providing information than gathering it. The unit itself seems to need to gather more intelligent people!
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Monarch, 24 Apr 2008 @ 9:48am

Re: Re: Re: Elite
"Stupidity and intelligence aren't mutually exclusive?"

Correct even someone with an IQ of a Moron, does still HAVE intelligence. The Moron is just much more stupid than the Genius!
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Mischa, 24 Apr 2008 @ 2:02pm

Re: Re: Re: Elite
No. Being re-assigned and jailed are not mutually exclusive.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2008 @ 2:31pm

Re:
Sure driving directions are useful for your friends. Problem is that it's also useful to the other guys are who not aren't as friendly.
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Reporter Amador, 25 Apr 2008 @ 12:02am

tradutor
Sou o Reporterdebasto.blogspot.com e tenho uma ideia a dar-lhe para que pessoas de outros países possam ler o seu blog. Porque não por um tradutor!?
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online gambling, 10 Jul 2008 @ 8:30am

usability and security
google earth and maps has been in trouble for exposing some secure sites in the us. there are areas you dont want your enemy to see.
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