Nytro Posted January 31, 2012 Report Posted January 31, 2012 [h=1]FBI Says Social Media-Sniffing App Will Protect Privacy[/h]By Damon PoeterJanuary 30, 2012 05:45pm EST The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday that a social media monitoring application it is seeking to develop will be vetted to ensure it protects the privacy of individuals and protected groups before being used. The FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC) made waves last week with a FedBizOpps.gov post requesting information about the potential for building an app capable of sniffing through online media sites and social networks to look for emerging threats around the world. Absent any context, the ad led to speculation that the feds are ginning up a "Big Brother"-type operation to snoop on users of Facebook, Twitter, and other popular social media platforms frequented by hundreds of millions of people around the globe. But if such an application is developed and used by the FBI, the agency's Privacy and Civil Liberties Unit "will review the legal implications of the application and ensure that we meet all privacy requirements prior to the application being implemented," an FBI spokesperson told PCMag.com. "The intent is to view publicly available open-source, non-private social data that is readily available on the open Internet," Special Agent Ann Todd of the FBI's Office of Public Affairs said. "The application will not focus on specific persons or protected groups, but on words that relate to 'events' and 'crisis,' and activities constituting violations of federal criminal law or threats to national security. Examples of these words will include 'lockdown,' 'bomb,' 'suspicious package,' 'white powder,' 'active shoot,' 'school lock down,' etc." Todd also reiterated that the Jan. 19 post on FedBizOpps.gov was a request for information (RFI) only. The FBI sought "to determine the capabilities of the IT industry to provide an open-source and social media application," she said, adding that "[t]he RFI was issued for market research and planning purposes only ... t was not intended to solicit proposals and no submissions will be accepted as official offers for contract." Sursa: FBI Says Social Media-Sniffing App Will Protect Privacy | News & Opinion | PCMag.com Quote
