This is a mildly disturbing implication of data mining and the skills developed in anti-terrorism network analysis..

..From Glen Reynolds:

UPDATE: Reader Jim Bullock writes:

Did not the administration crow quite a bit over the last year about targeting “connectors” among Al Qaeda higher-ups as a means of disabling the system? These people were selected as targets for drones and other “actions” based on their being connectors.

So, we seem to think identifying connectors works, and removing them harms the networks. It is worthwhile making them targets, simply on the basis of being connectors.

Meanwhile, the “innocuous” “metadata” collected on US citizens is nothing to worry about, except you can build with it connection maps to *find* bridging folks (who’s removal would cripple the whole network), and DHS has identified some very interesting groups and positions as terrorist, or potentially terrorist. Christians, by name, for one.

I really do not want to start wearing a tinfoil hat, but it’s seemingly more stupid every day to do otherwise.

Who do you follow on Twitter and Facebook? Who follows you?

What would it take to spavine those networks if those people were tied up with an tax audit or other regulatory investigation?

The question may not be "is that paranoid?", but "is it paranoid enough?"