CIA to start spying on social media?
Visible Technologies, a company that monitors online social activity and packages the findings for clients, has forged a "strategic partnership" with In-Q-Tel, the CIA's not-for-profit investment arm, to give the organization insight into social media.
The deal was first reported on Monday by Wired.
According to Visible Technologies, In-Q-Tel is also investing in the company through a "technology development agreement." It did not release more details than that.
However, examining Visible Technologies' work may offer insight into what In-Q-Tel has in mind.
Visible Technologies, which is based in the Seattle area, provides services that allow companies to monitor social-media activity. Companies tend to be interested in consumer opinions. With Visible Technologies' service, companies can view content from mainstream media, cultivate information from blogs, check out open Web 2.0 sites, read tweets, and more. Visible Technologies said its goal is to provide clients "with actionable insight into social-media conversations."
Aside from culling real-time, raw conversations across the Web, Visible Technologies also "scores" its content, helping clients determine the context of each mention and whether the tone of the comments are negative or not.
In-Q-Tel apparently sees Visible Technologies' offering as ideal for monitoring social media overseas.
The CIA may or may not be interested in what people think about it, per se. However, In-Q-Tel spokesman Donald Tighe told Wired that the organization plans to use Visible Technologies' service for "early-warning detection on how issues are playing internationally." He noted that it has no intentions of monitoring activity in the United States.
Steven Aftergood, a member of the Federation of American Scientists, told Wired that that contention regarding overseas use only is probably true because "even if information is openly gathered by intelligence agencies, it would still be problematic if it were used for unauthorized domestic investigations or operations."
Regardless, In-Q-Tel, and by extension, the CIA, will be monitoring tweets and other social content soon. What do you think of that? Let us know in the comments below.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Maybe that's the problem, I keep expecting these zombies to know how to read *AND* comprehend at the same time.
"I will not go quietly!"
If you're worried about people looking in on your public postings, it's the FBI's job there, not the CIA.
As long as you're not making calls to suspected terrorists or their contacts, or posting bomb or insurgency how-to's, there's no reason to believe you'd be flagged. And that's just it. People aren't reading you're personal conversation to find out about your latest tryst in your affair- it's all automated until you're flagged. And if there is some shady stuff going on you wouldn't want your significant other know about, it's not like someone's going to pass it on. Hell, even if there's tax evasion involved, they probably wouldn't care (as long as it's not funding one of the flagged organizations).
When the FBI hires these folks, or makes their own division for such purposes, then you can start getting overly paranoid.
Every society has rules. By your definition ("Either we're completely free or we're not free at all"), no one is free. With rules, no society is truly free. Who ever told you that anyone has EVER been free is a complete moron. In return, you would have to be one yourself if you ever thought anyone in existence has ever been truly free. That would be like saying you can't have freedom if you aren't allowed to run around killing everyone.
What is done with the newly found information is the important thing to be concerned about, and to that end I would say that the 'powers that be' should not be able to hide behind their walls of secrecy either. Governmental agencies should only be able to retain the amount of 'secrecy' that they respect of their people, which is appearently none at all. A government is a public entity and their actions should be fully transparent and subject to public scrutiny in a timely manner, and be held liable for undue transgressions. That is not to say that everything should be broadcast immediately but the timeline of the freedom of imformation act does need to be shortened to provide a greater measure of accountability.
Honest people have nothing to hide, neither should honest governments, agencies, corperations, industries, political groups, etc.
Should the CIA be able to read Tweets and social info that is protected? Not on American citizens. But if American citizens do not protect that info, then it is free for anyone to use how they see fit. Put it another way, if the news uncovers a plot involving a US citizen and an international terrorist, and the information leads to the location of the international terrorist, do they ignore that information since it is connected to a US citizen? No. Because the information is in the public domain. Further, since you are yelling it out in public, you are fully aware that anyone has access to that information and you also know what information is public. So there are no secrets here - you aren't keeping it a secret if it's in the public domain.
Happy Daeˇ
http://ShoeStringGenealogy.com
BTW, the FDA says it is underfunded but they always have the time and energy to harrass and shut down innovators in the medical field.
This USA is in severe economic crisis (supposedly) but there is always money to fund the wars that seem to never end and likely will expand. Where does this money come from?
Why does the Federal Reserve refuse the audit that Ron Paul and his several hundred cosponsors want?
WRT privacy, it is pretty much gone. People who demand privacy, as one of the basic human rights, are ridiculed. It is amazing to see that most of you have been converted to believe that only bad people have things to keep private. This is incredibly naive thinking but does show the power/effectiveness of the psyops that is used continuously on the people. The one thing the government fears the most is discerning minds.
The government exists to fulfill our needs: security, opportunity, self-reliance, health, and happiness. We are getting the opposite outcomes, don't you think?
This will uphold the DOMESTIC area up even much higher than before.
Seems everyone wants to support USA by going to war but what about the soul of America?
By the time our troops come home they will feel alienated and America will not be the American they knew days before 9-11. I bet many will call this to be some future sort of future racism.
This is better than putting cameras on every street corner.
Just remember all your lewd messages before you declare candidacy to a public office, then weigh your options!
Can the F.B.I., and Special Agent Seely Booth, get on on this action?
Wasn't this attempted about 35+ years ago, under Nixie-Boy, with disappointing results? Gathering In-Tel is easy; figuring out what it all means is "A Horse Of A Different Color".
The FBI can intercept domestic communications with a warrant.
Neither of them are prevented from analyzing public domain postings such are news broadcasts or cable, newspapers, magazines, blogs, or other publically posted materials.
The original intent of the Department of Homeland Security (don't get me going on mission creep or their exceeding their mandate) was to provide a means for the FBI to easily pass information that impacts the extra-national sphere to the CIA, and vice versa, so that the appropriate organization can take appropriate action. In a perfect world, the CIA would have found out from their foreign sources that Al Qaeda was planning an internal attack on the United States using domestic resouces and passed it to the FBI; who would have formed a task force to identify the perpetrators, their targets, and their methodologies, and in the best scenario, apprehended the perps before they hijacked the planes.
The real enemy is the unseen forces who control governments, especially the USA and Britain. IMO, the central banks, Wall St banks, the CFR/Bilderbergers/TLC/Club of Rome/etc. all work together to create chaos. Their aim is the New World Order where they rule and we, if allowed to live, serve.
Duhhh
To bad aipac is not considered a domestic enemy even though they and their members are the thorn in everyones side.
- by n3td3v October 21, 2009 8:55 AM PDT
- "He noted that it has no intentions of monitoring activity in the United States."
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(33 Comments)I guess all the terrorists will start living in the United States then because they now know you don't get monitored living there.
Obviously there is a lie involved somewhere in the whole 'we don't spy on our own citizens just other peoples citizens'.