We are being watched! In a recent article ProPublica details massive spying in gaming environments.
Second Life gets special mention – “— so many CIA, FBI and Pentagon spies were hunting around in Second Life that a “deconfliction” group was needed to avoid collisions –”. This has been a poorly kept secret for years. Importantly they are plying their trade in-world, which is good for a giggle; picture your basic CIA superspy in skimpy latex 🙂 . Under the circumstances LL’s “no comment” is expected, although a more nuanced explanation would have been better.
Of greater concern is NSA and the British GCHQ spying on (as opposed to in) SL. At least potentially they would not need to be in world to capture the streams going in and out of the SL servers. As tempting as it may be to satisfy their curiosity about what is going on on some private island, it is a violation of everyone’s privacy to do so.
Update: Inara Pey has a more nuanced and in depth take on this at her blog.
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.”
Helen Keller.
Rambling with Shug 