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FB, twitter or Laptop?

A lot of my friends in FB are in Iran and using their own names and are very active in sending out updates and pictures etc... I also know people who went to Iran and had their own name on their FB account.

If you take your computer, they will search inside of it, just like they do in the US when they suspect people of espionage or other illegal activities, but they won't ask you for your FB login so they can go through your friends names!!

IRANdokht

To be or not to be ...

... anonymous.  That is the question!

Everything is sacred.

Hacking.

Thanks, it is always good to have the latest technical information.

However I am always suspicious of it. Every day there are new and improved ways of hacking sp you never know for sure what tomorrow will bring.

I think at the end of the day it is more of a moral choice than a pragmatic one. I think if it were me I would delete the account permanently and thenimmediately set up a new one with a fake name. And then immediately e-mail everyone I could who was a facebook contact and tell them I did that. I think most of the people in Iran who have been active in c-space on the various avenues use fake names.   Once you set foot on Iranian soil you are in Iran.

Even if I felt that there were only say a .5% chance that it might endanger one other person, I think I would make that moral choice. But that's just me. It doesn't mean someone else who made the choice you say is immoral.  Some people think I am meticulous in general to the point of OCD and there is truth in what they say. 

So thanks a lot for that info. I am sure people will find it useful.

not surprised

although it takes quite a bit of resources to check all iranians' facebook activities, i'm sure that iri has committed some resources to it already. they will probably have priority categorization: expats, age range, for examples.

however, one can set the privacy settings in such a way that you will only be searchable by friends.  alternatively, one can deactivate his/her facebook account when going to iran and activate it at later date having all information remained intact.

I am sure every country in the world does this when

there is unrest. or perceived threat, from UK to Uganda to Uruguay. (I am also pretty sure that somewhere within the IRI intelligence apparatus, someone is scanning our homepage as I type this and for all I know reading this very thread. Kosh amadid! Hi! Shalom!)

I am pretty sure the only reason they are bothering to ask people this at Customs is as an intimidation tactic. But I thought it was important to post this so people would know that if they ask you, you are far better off saying yes because it indicates that you are not a liar. This makes you less of a security risk.

The other reason I posted it is equally important but a far more difficult one to grapple with. Granted facebook, twitter etc. have been observed with a fine tooth comb all these past weeks. However the other side of it is that these online services are vast. Now if you (or as in this case an American friend) are travelling to Iran, you know that they may or may not ask you if you have an account but they are almost definitely going to check whether or not you do.

So if you have an account with your real name you can be PRETTY CERTAIN that once you step off that plane, you are divulging the names of every single one of your contacts who uses their real name. You can say oh well they probably already have those names clearly but the key word is probably.

So do you want to do this? Travel to Iran and know that in doing so you are divulging those names?

While there is no simple answer, I think it is important for people to understand that this very clear question exists.

You can keep the account up, you can delete it and replace it with an anonymous one, or you can not travel at all.  Your call.

US Agents do the same !!!

This is the way to identify the "opposition" in US and many other countries. In US they also label it as a way to identify the "terrorists".

Thanks.