Twitter & FaceBook Tapping / Law enforcement and its social surveillance

[Bill Mattocks]

What you say online matters. Just FYI.

http://www.privacydigest.com/2009/1...g law enforcement and its social surveillance

Twitter & FaceBook Tapping / Law enforcement and its social surveillance


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.
Law enforcement is not saying a lot about its social surveillance, but examples keep coming to light. The Wall Street Journal reported this summer that state revenue agents have been searching for tax scofflaws by mining information on MySpace and Facebook. In October, the F.B.I. searched the New York home of a man suspected of helping coordinate protests at the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh by sending out messages over Twitter.

 

[Bruno@MT]

Yep. Rule number 1 strikes again....

If you say it on the internet, you've said it to the entire world.
And this is public info so the cops are free to browse and analyze that info whenever and as much as they want.

 

[Carol]

"Tapping" is a big misnomer here.

The term "tapping" is a slang came about to mean the lawful recording/surveillance of a private conversation that would otherwise be unlawful to record.

Posting on the public internet is not a private conversation, period.

 

[CanuckMA]

I'd add that if all they mine is stuff viewable by the public, no issue. If they get to data that only friends are allowed, then I have an issue.

 

[Archangel M]

Open Source information.

 

[Cryozombie]

I wonder how expectation of privacy applies when you post something that is visible to "friends only" and L.E. uses tools to view that...

Would that be any different than if I mirror tint all the windows on my house and they use electronic devices to see thru the tint?

 

[Archangel M]

The only "tools" we really have to read "friends only" stuff are the ones provided by the source (facebook). Read you terms of service very carefully before posting sensitive info to the net.

 

[jks9199]

The only "tools" we really have to read "friends only" stuff are the ones provided by the source (facebook). Read you terms of service very carefully before posting sensitive info to the net.

Generally, to obtain information that is not publicly available, a subpoena is required. Most social networking sites have a security department that works with and assists law enforcement in investigations, and provides a template for what the subpoena should include, where it should be directed, and other such functions.

 

[Carol]

The only "tools" we really have to read "friends only" stuff are the ones provided by the source (facebook). Read you terms of service very carefully before posting sensitive info to the net.

Absolutely.

"Friends-only" does NOT mean "non-public". The poster has can only restrict the initial viewership, so it means unless the LEO is on the person's friends list, the LEO cannot directly see the posting on the page. But beyond that, a poster has absolutely zero control over what is done with the information once it is posted.

If the information is very sensitive, the post could be reported by one of the friends as a violation of the site's ToS. Or the material could be discovered by site admins looking for ToS violations (remember, the admins of the database hold all the keys to the castle) and respond accordingly, including reporting the post to the appropriate LE office.

Or the friends could take the info and dime them out directly to a local LEO.

Orr they could repost it on to a site where it is public, and let the info circulate as it will. Or e-mail two friends about it, who e-mailed two friends about it, who e-mailed two friends about it......

Just like in real life -- the juicier the story, the more legs it will have.

 

[Bruno@MT]

I'd add that if all they mine is stuff viewable by the public, no issue. If they get to data that only friends are allowed, then I have an issue.

Unless they are added as friends. Then it is legal as long as they used their real name. At least in Belgium it is. A good number of people found out that ading random strangers as friends is almost as stupid as bragging on the internet on the things they did to evade taxes.