FBI Releases Official Plans to Monitor Facebook, Twitter

[PC LOAD LETTER]

Caught this on Reddit today:

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/on...o-monitor.html

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has quietly released details of plans to continuously monitor the global output of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, offering a rare glimpse into an activity that the FBI and other government agencies are reluctant to discuss publicly. The plans show that the bureau believes it can use information pulled from social media sites to better respond to crises, and maybe even to foresee them.

The information comes from a document released on 19 January looking for companies who might want to build a monitoring system for the FBI. It spells out what the bureau wants from such a system and invites potential contractors to reply by 10 February.

The bureau's wish list calls for the system to be able to automatically search "publicly available" material from Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites for keywords relating to terrorism, surveillance operations, online crime and other FBI missions. Agents would be alerted if the searches produce evidence of "breaking events, incidents, and emerging threats".

Agents will have the option of displaying the tweets and other material captured by the system on a map, to which they can add layers of other data, including the locations of US embassies and military installations, details of previous terrorist attacks and the output from local traffic cameras.

The document suggests that the bureau wants to use social media to target specific users or groups of users. It notes that agents need to "locate bad actors...and analyze their movements, vulnerabilities, limitations, and possible adverse actions". It also states that the bureau will use social media to create "pattern-of-life matrices" -- presumably logs of targets' daily routines -- that will aid law enforcement in planning operations.

The use of the term "publicly available" suggests that Facebook and Twitter may be able to exempt themselves from the monitoring by making their posts private. But the desire of the US government to watch everyone may still have an unwelcome impact, warns Jennifer Lynch at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based advocacy group.

Lynch says that many people post to social media in the expectation that only their friends and followers are reading, which gives them "the sense of freedom to say what they want without worrying too much about recourse," says Lynch. "But these tools that mine open source data and presumably store it for a very long time, do away with that kind of privacy. I worry about the effect of that on free speech in the US".

The document also suggests that the FBI thinks it can use social media to peer into the future. It notes that agents need to use social media to "[p]redict likely developments in the situation or future actions taken by bad actors (by conducting, [sic] trend, pattern, association, and timeline analysis)".

The bureau declined to immediately comment on how this analysis might work, or on any other aspect of the document, but the idea of turning agents into digital soothsayers is plausible: researchers working at Facebook and in academia have shown that social media can be used to infer many things about an individual, including the existence of friendships that are not declared on social networking sites and the location of users who have not revealed where they are based.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I think it was probably pretty obvious that they did this already.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

They were doing this before... I remember hearing stories,from years ago,that teenagers would be arrested for posting "threatening" posts on their wall which supposedly targeted the president. Among other stories that is... besides, everyone knows they do this anyway;at this point everything is just being made formal.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

They were doing this before... I remember hearing stories,from years ago,that teenagers would be arrested for posting "threatening" posts on their wall which supposedly targeted the president. Among other stories that is... besides, everyone knows they do this anyway;at this point everything is just being made formal.

The general consensus is that they monitored it casually in the past, nobody's denying that.

They're contracting out someone to write software that will allow them to systematically monitor everything posted to facebook and twitter on an unprecedented level. Before you could casually post things that were "off" from the 'Standard American Patriotism' and nobody would notice. This is trying to analyze every single post to the two networks.

[Ele'ill]

It's probably gonna cover previous posts too.

[Ele'ill]

Gear up to troll the FBI

[Os Cangaceiros]

The general consensus is that they monitored it casually in the past, nobody's denying that.

They're contracting out someone to write software that will allow them to systematically monitor everything posted to facebook and twitter on an unprecedented level. Before you could casually post things that were "off" from the 'Standard American Patriotism' and nobody would notice. This is trying to analyze every single post to the two networks.

I seem to remember news stories years back about government agencies having software to monitor certain phrases on the internet, though. I remember reading about it on some news forum, and one of the users there added "bomb infidels Allah jihad" to his signature in response to the story.

[ВАЛТЕР]

Sure enough, the parade of repression marches on. When will anyone stand up and stop this? Who knows? All I know is eventually when you can't say anything remotely against the government out of fear of arrest then it will be too late .

Well, I had better delete my facebook then. Although I don't know how I am going to keep in touch with all of my friends from the US. I am pretty political with some of the shit I say on there when discussing things with friends, never saying things like "death to America" or whatever but still, I don't want the feds prying into my life.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Well, I had better delete my facebook then. Although I don't know how I am going to keep in touch with all of my friends from the US. I am pretty political with some of the shit I say on there when discussing things with friends, never saying things like "death to America" or whatever but still, I don't want the feds prying into my life.

Say "Death to America" and make everyone else say it - FBI trolling in action. Not necessarily so simple and daft, perhaps, but something like it. Unless you plan to travel a lot to the U.S., of course, then it might be inadvisable...

[Os Cangaceiros]

The thing about Facebook is the only things the FBI etc. are going to see about you on there are things you yourself put up, so I don't think it's worth getting hung up about. People should just be smart about what they post online. If you're involved in potentially criminal activities that the authorities have taken an interest in, then you probably shouldn't be on Facebook, because I would think that investigators would be just as interested in who you know and how you know them as they are in what you post.

[Pretty Flaco]

I dunno about you guys, but I have absolutely nothing remotely worth being surveyed by the FBI on my facebook.
"OMG, this guy liked gucci last week! let's wire tap him later!"

[Comrade Samuel]

Oh good now everyone will just type "bomb,bomb illegal immigrant jihad" to troll them, their sensors will have a sizure. XD

[Drosophila]

Would any intelligent discussion go on on those sites anyway?

[PC LOAD LETTER]

Would any intelligent discussion go on on those sites anyway?

Quite a few of my friends are at least outspoken liberals, especially on facebook. One anarchist and two left-coms. Much more are critical of the government in some way without expressing a concrete set of political views. Another 3 people are outspoken proponents of animal rights ... another group historically targeted.

I know I'm about to go remove some of the political stuff from my profile ...

[bcbm]

i try to never post or 'like' anything that is too 'out there' politically. i shake my head at my friends posting anarcho riot videos.

[PhoenixAsh]

it is a cop out to say: I have nothing to hide.

It is the basis on which all invasion of privacy laws are passed. Buy making people believe that they have nothing to hide. Fact is...you have no freaking clue if you have got nothing to hide or not...or when the nothing you have now...turns into something a little later on.

So what about this? The FBI will be aware of your entire social network. And everything your social network does.

It also isn't merely a matter of YOU being discreet on your facebook....but about the discretion of everybody in your friendslist and their friendlists.

[bcbm]

it is a cop out to say: I have nothing to hide.

It is the basis on which all invasion of privacy laws are passed. Buy making people believe that they have nothing to hide. Fact is...you have no freaking clue if you have got nothing to hide or not...or when the nothing you have now...turns into something a little later on.

its a cop out to expect the state to do anything less than use every tool at its disposal to gather data on its enemies, ie all of us.

So what about this? The FBI will be aware of your entire social network. And everything your social network does.

It also isn't merely a matter of YOU being discreet on your facebook....but about the discretion of everybody in your friendslist and their friendlists.

it doesn't mean there is no point in taking a small precaution. i don't think it amounts to much, i just think it is silly to be so open about your politics on something like facebook if your politics involve overthrowing the government.

[Sendo]

Anyone remember that Onion article saying "FBI Declares Operation Facebook a Success"? I've been saying for four years that the Onion isn't funny anymore because its satire doesn't go far enough. Everything they post about the government or the right-wing, no matter how ridiculous, invariably comes to fruition.

How Bad Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be? -- 30 Million Americans Wonder
Working Class Unsure How Best to Fuck Itself This Election Year
etc etc

The Onion has had some very sharp satire...but all of it comes true. If Jonathan Swift were writing for it today, by 2014 the GOP would start recommending unemployed single mothers to sell their babies as a delicacy food (but not the pre-born of course!) and the Dems would start saying they should only sell an arm or leg of the baby.

[Sendo]

Quite a few of my friends are at least outspoken liberals, especially on facebook. One anarchist and two left-coms. Much more are critical of the government in some way without expressing a concrete set of political views. Another 3 people are outspoken proponents of animal rights ... another group historically targeted.

I know I'm about to go remove some of the political stuff from my profile ...

Too late. In fact, the EU is mulling over the human "Right to Be Forgotten" since the stuff's already logged as had been since day one and is undeletable. NO MATTER WHAT unless you destroy a bunch of data farms across the USA.

Google has been caching the text content of your status updates (even if you maxed out your privacy settings) for years and years.

[blake 3:17]

Assume there is a spy in every group and just get on with it. Mostly be cautious about putting others at risk or being talked into stupid foolish behavior or boasting about that behavior.

This board would be closely watched.