Posted on 12/28/2011 5:30:57 PM PST by Brandonmark
An online privacy group is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security accusing it of not releasing records from the agency's covert surveillance of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.
The DHS creates accounts solely to monitor social media sites and establish a system of records of the information gathered. The agency does not post information, seek to connect with other users, accept invitations to connect or interact with others according to a statement on their website.
The agency scans social media sites for a list of words that include "dirty bomb," "hostage," "exercise," "task force," "explosion," "lockdown," "riot," "nuclear threat," "brown out," "meth lab," "cain and abel" and "brute forcing."
Several countries and cities, including North Korea and Mexico, are also flagged as key words.
In a statement, the DHS said that the National Operations Center (NOC) "will gather, store, analyze, and disseminate relevant and appropriate de-identified information to federal, state, local, and foreign governments, and private sector partners authorized to receive situational awareness and a common operating picture," said the statement.
In April 2011, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) requested records from the DHS of the agency's social network monitoring program. The agency has an obligation to locate the records and notify the requestor if the records are available for release.
Marc Rotenberg, EPIC's executive director, told ABC News that the requests have gone unanswered.
On Dec. 20, EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the DHS.
"We want to know how they're collecting information online, what they're collecting online and if there's legal basis to do this," Rotenberg told ABC News.
"We are trying to understand what the circumstances are when the DHS is engaged in tracking to social media sites," Rotenberg added.
The DHS declined to comment on the issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I’m willing to bet a majority of the MSM were too young to really know about Carnivore.
I feel shocked....../s
I wonder what their FreeRepublic names are...
You’re on the list now.
To the lurker, you really have an interesting dude in Janet.
Be sure to friend “Jackboot” the next chance you get???
Except for Freepmail, everything on FR is visible to non registrants — why should they bother?
totally beat me to it.
Hey Janet, CIA, FBI and LMNOP! Americans are not the threat.
Here's a hint for ya, Keep an eye on the mosques. Keep an eye on the border.
Stop fondling our elderly and children.
No doubt!
Trolls, laying bait to see who responds?
* My husband dropped a dirty bomb after his morning exercise while reading about the new fire service tactics on meth labs and how Cain would have been perfectly able to serve as CIC. He holed up in the bathroom like a hostage, finally expelling with brute forcing that nasty explosion. He needed a task force of air fresheners to eliminate the smell, equipping himself with aerosol cans and a mask making him look like he was ready for a nuclear threat. He kept the family from riot by successfully eliminating that brown out, but the bathroom had to be on lock down for another thirty minutes before it was safe. * Hey Nappy Napolitano! Do I get a special visit? Cain and
With all the news today about North Korea and Mexico, I would not be surprised if they have to set up a task force to cover the explosion of posts as individuals exercize their rights to self-expression.
I personally will have a riot discussing their attempts to hold me hostage for my self expression, or lockdown my ability to express myself.
And, will we ever be able to discuss again the use of the nuclear option by Harry Reed in the Senate?
I can't think of anything to use dirty bomb, brown out, or meth lab, don't know of another use for cain and abel except in a discussion of Genesis, and brute forcing sounds ominous to me. Perhaps that's what they are trying to due to my rights of free speech, and/or self expression.
I think that everyone should send out ten emails a day to commercial ventures that you don't like that include all the words that they are trying to track, just to see what the result is.
On the other hand, perhaps I would get a chance to witness first hand the beauty of Guantanamo for myself, and what this country is like with habeas corpus stripped out of the Constitution.
Just thinking out loud, citizen.
If somebody like the infamous Hutaree showed up on FR, they would have gotten zot within minutes.
(...shhhh...maybe DHS doesn't know about us yet...)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.