FBI wants to invade social networks

[Lishy]

The FBI is seeking to develop an early-warning system based on material "scraped" from social networks.

It says the application should provide information about possible domestic and global threats superimposed onto maps "using mash-up technology".

The bureau has asked contractors to suggest possible solutions including the estimated cost.

Privacy campaigners say they are concerned that the move could have implications for free speech.

The FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center (SOIC) posted its "Social Media Application" market research request onto the web on 19 January, and it was subsequently flagged up by New Scientist magazine.

The document says: "Social media has become a primary source of intelligence because it has become the premier first response to key events and the primal alert to possible developing situations."

It says the application should collect "open source" information and have the ability to:

* Provide an automated search and scrape capability of social networks including Facebook and Twitter.
* Allow users to create new keyword searches.
* Display different levels of threats as alerts on maps, possibly using colour coding to distinguish priority. Google Maps 3D and Yahoo Maps are listed among the "preferred" mapping options.
* Plot a wide range of domestic and global terror data.
* Immediately translate foreign language tweets into English.

The FBI says the information would be used to help it to predict the likely actions of "bad actors", detect instances of people deliberately misleading law enforcement officers and spot the vulnerabilities of suspect groups.
Privacy permissions

The FBI issued the request three weeks after the US Department of Homeland Security released a separate report into the privacy implications of monitoring social media websites.

It justified the principle of using information that users have provided and not opted to make private.

"Information posted to social media websites is publicly accessible and voluntarily generated. Thus the opportunity not to provide information exists prior to the informational post by the user," it says.

It noted that the department's National Operations Center had a policy in place to edit out any gathered information which fell outside of the categories relevant to its investigations.

It listed websites that the centre planned to monitor. They include YouTube, the photo service Flickr, and Itstrending.com - a site which shows popular shared items on Facebook.

It also highlighted words it looked out for. These include "gangs", "small pox", "leak", "recall" and "2600" - an apparent reference to the hacking-focused magazine.
'Dragnet effect'

The London-based campaign group, Privacy International, said it was worried about the consequences of such activities.

"Social networks are about connecting people with other people - if one person is the target of police monitoring, there will be a dragnet effect in which dozens, even hundreds, of innocent users also come under surveillance," said Gus Hosein, the group's executive director.

"It is not necessarily the case that the more information law enforcement officers have, the safer we will be.

"Police may well find themselves overwhelmed by a flood of personal information, information that is precious to those it concerns but useless for the purposes of crime prevention."

The group noted that it was seeking information from the UK's Metropolitan Police Service about its use of social networks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16738209

Cuz terrorists organize on twitter and facebook, amrite?

[gb13]

Fuck them. Why don't they spend their time investigating the terrorists in congress...

[Kelly.]

this has been ongoing since at least the myspace days.

[donnay]

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] has quietly released details of plans to continuously monitor the global output of Facebook.


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.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/01/fbi-releases-plans-to-monitor.html

[Lishy]

Elaborate on "bad actors"! ;)

Although i already posted this: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?355710-FBI-wants-to-invade-social-networks&p=4098358#post4098358

[donnay]

Facebook's timeline feature becomes mandatory for all users in 7 Days

Facebook's Timeline - a new look for people's Profile pages which exposes their entire history on the site - will become mandatory for all users.

The 'new look' has been voluntary up until now.

From now, users will simply be notified that they are being 'updated' via an announcement at the top of their home page, which users click on to activate Timeline.

As with voluntary switches to Timeline, those who are 'updated' will have just seven days to select which photos, posts and life events they want to advertise to the world.

Via the official Facebook blog, the site announced, 'Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story.'

'Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now.

'This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it.'

Timeline has been criticised for showing off pictures and posts that people might have wanted to forget.

The new look also pairs with 'timeline apps', such as Spotify, which post every time people listen to a song, or eat a recipe or visit somewhere.

'You can learn more about these new features by taking the quick tour available at the top of your timeline,' says Facebook.

'If you want to get timeline now, go to the Introducing Timeline page and click 'Get Timeline.'Or you can wait until you see an announcement at the top of your home page.'

Mark Zuckerberg described timeline as letting you 'tell the whole story of your life on a single page'.

The redesigned pages have a more magazine-like photo-heavy feel, with a large 'cover photo' at the top of the page.

On the right of the page there will be a timeline that breaks down all posts from a person's time on Facebook and allows viewers to jump back to people's earliest posts with a break down month-by-month.

Some were puzzled by the abrupt roll-out of the change, which is one of the biggest changes to Facebook - all the more so when paired with the new Timeline apps, such as Spotify, which posts a continuous stream of all songs listened to to your Timeline.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2091735/Facebook-Timeline-mandatory-users--just-7-days-clean-up.html

[ZanZibar]

Twitter and Facebook were started by seed money or heavily invested in by the CIA and NSA. The Feds are already there.

[Carson]

Here's a thread on Fark on the topic.

FBI "scraps" social network spying program *wink wink, nudge nudge* (http://www.fark.com/comments/6904033/FBI-scraps-social-network-spying-program-wink-wink-nudge-nudge)

[bolil]

Twitter and Facebook were started by seed money or heavily invested in by the CIA and NSA. The Feds are already there.
I always wondered why Zuckerberg was allowed to keep "his" website... Always suspected this. Is this conjecture or do you have some sort of evidence? I agree with you though, just wondering.

[ZanZibar]

I always wondered why Zuckerberg was allowed to keep "his" website... Always suspected this. Is this conjecture or do you have some sort of evidence? I agree with you though, just wondering.It's pretty well known among the tech community. Google for it, it's out there.

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

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)".

Then once identified as a future bad actor, they'll just disappear YOU via NDAA. Awesome.

[RickyJ]

Want to? They already do it. You get on facebook or twitter then everything you post can be seen by them. Gmail, Yahoo, hotmail, every email can be seen by them. They have been doing this for years, this is nothing new. I know this yet still have a Gmail and Yahoo account. I just keep all terrorist related stuff off of them. :D

Encryption and using multiple proxies is used for the important stuff.

[bolil]

Yeah, then that Diaspora guy dying young and suddenly.

[Carson]

I would think the big change they would need to be watching for is silence.

Once everyone gets argued out they may move onto something else...

[RickyJ]

I would think the big change they would need to be watching for is silence.

Once everyone gets argued out they may move onto something else.

Posting some junk up there every once in a while will keep them from knowing anything. 99.99% of everything on facebook and twitter is junk. Just keep a steady flow of junk up there and they won't suspect a thing.

[euphemia]

The only way to protect your privacy on the internet is not to ever post a picture or a remark you do not want to have seen by the rest of the world. If you don't want to be exposed, don't expose yourself. I don't think people have an expectation of privacy in a public place. Anyone can watch me in a park or a store. I have no expectation of privacy. The only way to have privacy is to stay home and close the door. I think everyone has to make choices about what they want to share and be responsible for them

Flameproof suit all ready.

[awake]

Facebook is too fat and juicy of a berry not to pick and squeeze. The private market created the worlds largest, most accurate and up to date personal information databank in the history of the world. Sometimes I wonder what the NKVD or Gestapo would have done with such a tool? Denunciations and fresh waves of Gulag slaves would have been simply a friends list away, all thanks to an "indefinitely detained" persons Facebook account.

Facebook in a world with a weak and insignificant government is a miracle; in a world with big government, it a technological breakthrough in slave management

[Lishy]

tl;dr: Our government has nothing better to do.

[Kluge]

It's pretty well known among the tech community. Google for it, it's out there.

Don't you always hassle people to look things up and give you multiple sources on any number of things, yet you won't make the effort to Google something to back up what you say?

[Carson]

Posting some junk up there every once in a while will keep them from knowing anything. 99.99% of everything on facebook and twitter is junk. Just keep a steady flow of junk up there and they won't suspect a thing.

Or how about this thing about watching your Google searches. What if there was a program that ran a list terms that overloaded any relevance some might try to glean.

Not that putting a load like that on a search engine would be moral.

[Indy Vidual]

I always wondered why Zuckerberg was allowed to keep "his" website... Always suspected this. Is this conjecture or do you have some sort of evidence? I agree with you though, just wondering.


Fact (98.999% Certain)
The NSA/CIA actually have 'legit' Venture Capital companies that are intended to help start companies related to "National Security" and "the good of the country." One of those firms was the second investor (first major investor) in Facebook.