United Liberty
Feds monitoring social networking sites
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 5:04pm | posted by Jason Pye
If you have a Facebook profile or Twitter account and are politically active or value your privacy, you may want to read this:
The government is increasingly monitoring Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for tax delinquents, copyright infringers and political protesters. A public interest group has filed a lawsuit to learn more about this monitoring, in the hope of starting a national discussion and modifying privacy laws as necessary for the online era.Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are trying to find out what the reach of such a program is. There was a case just last month where police used Twitter to monitor a group of protesters during the G-20 summit.
[…]
In some cases, the government appears to be engaged in deception. The Boston Globe recently quoted a Massachusetts district attorney as saying that some police officers were going undercover on Facebook as part of their investigations.Wired magazine reported last month that In-Q-Tel, an investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, has put money into Visible Technologies, a software company that crawls across blogs, online forums, and open networks like Twitter and YouTube to monitor what is being said.
Scary? I would have said no if “political protesters” weren’t included in that list. Since the MIAC and Homeland Security reports on “right-wing extremism,” you have to wonder if your beliefs are going to get you in trouble.
As long as the information posted to Facebook and Twitter is free and open (i.e. not locked to “friends only”), then I don’t see a problem with government looking for cheats and thieves. Posting that stuff on social networks is akin to going out into the street and screaming it.
However, I agree with your last paragraph about “political protesters.” My First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly include the digital world, near as I can figure.
Many Facebook users do not sign up thinking that their personal information will be “free and open.” Facebook does have privacy settings that come with the implication that your information will only be visible to those who you want to see it. I don’t know if it’s the same with Twitter.
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson
Sorry, but at some point people have to take some responsibility. You post stuff on the internet, you have to assume it’ll get out. We can’t make a big ass warning label for the internet like every other damn thing sold in this country.
I don’t think a warning label is necessary, but if Facebook or any other social networking site is promising privacy and not protecting against its users’ material being put in the hands of an outside party, the user has a right to be upset.
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson
“If you have a Facebook profile or Twitter account and are politically active or value your privacy.”
Well, that definitely means the authors here are on a watch list. =X
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson
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