The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the creation of an application that would allow it to better mine social media content, in an attempt to more accurately identify, target and fight “emerging threats” in real-time. The application could also be used to predict potential threats before they even happen.
According to a Request for Information (RFI) posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website, the FBI says it hopes to “determine the capability of industry to provide an Open Source and social media alert, mapping, and analysis application solution.” This tool would allow the FBI to “quickly vet, identify, and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats” using “publicly available” information posted to social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, as well as local and national news publications.
Big Brother 2.0
Of course, monitoring social media is nothing new for the law enforcement community. At present, however, it’s simply too ineffectual and inefficient for the FBI’s needs.
“Social media is a valued source of information to the [FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC)] intelligence analyst in routinely monitoring events,” says the RFI. “Analysts have standing intelligence issues that they monitor as a matter of daily course around the globe. It is also seminal in their effort to provide initial information about single events of significance to law enforcement. Social media has become a primary source of intelligence because it has become the premier first response to key events and the primal alert to possible developing situations.”
The application the FBI hopes to have built would simply make this process easier and more thorough.
Here’s how the FBI envisions the app working: The information gathered from news and social media outlets would be overlaid onto a digital map, pinpointing the location of the “breaking events,” along with all other relevant contextual data. Additional information, including US domestic terror data, worldwide terror data, the location of all US embassies, consulates and military installations, weather conditions and forecasts, and traffic video feeds, would also be overlaid on the map.
A robust search feature would also be incorporated into the app, which would allow the ability to “instantly search and monitor key words and strings in ‘publicly available’ tweets across the Twitter Site and any other ‘publicly available social networking sites/forums,” according to the RFI. The FBI wants the search function to allow for simultaneous key word searches “that can look at 10 or 20 separate incidents/threats at the same time within the same ‘window.’” The ability to monitor tweets and other social media data in a minimum of 12 foreign languages, and to “immediately translate” those posts into English, is also outlined as a required feature of the application.
The future is now
All of that seems fairly straight forward. In fact, we are surprised the FBI doesn’t already have such an application at their disposal, since all of the features it outlines are well within the capabilities of a skilled software development team. Not to mention the fact that much of what the FBI hopes to use already exists in different parts. Websites like OpenStatusSearch.com, YourOpenBook.org, TweetScan.com and Tweepz.com make it possible to quickly and easily search for key words being posted publicly to Twitter and Facebook. All the FBI’s dreamed-up app would do is combine these features into a single product, and expand them with additional governmental and law enforcement data, and mapping tools.
However, the FBI doesn’t just want to know about what’s happening now; it also wants to predict events that are about to happen — to predict the future. If that sounds suspiciously like Minority Report, you’re not alone.
“Social media will be critical to meeting the intelligence objectives stated above because it provides unique access to communications about the special event [i.e. political conventions, national holidays, or sporting events] in advance of its occurrence,” reads the RFI.
As with the ability to search tweets and updates, using social media to predict the future is nothing new. In March 2011, the Journal of Computational Science showed that tweets could be used to predict upcoming fluctuations of the Dow Jones Industrial Average to an accuracy of 86.7 percent. And just this month, the Rand Corporation analyzed tweets from 2009 that used the hashtag #IranElection, and found that an increase in swear words in tweets could be used to predict where and when protests and other forms of public discontent would occur.
Using predictive technology isn’t limited to academics, governments, or corporations, either. The website RecordTheFuture.com allows anyone with an account to access troves of information about potential upcoming events, including product releases, stock fluctuations, and even upcoming vacation plans of private individuals.
Is everyone a target?
In other words, the worlds of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell have already arrived. The FBI simply wants to create a custom application that combines already-available technology, and streamlines it, in an attempt to do their job better. That’s all good and well when if it’s used to stop truly “bad guys,” like terrorists who want to blow up a football stadium. The problem is, who do they consider “bad guys” nowadays? Hackers like Anonymous? Wikileaks supporters? Occupy Wall Street protesters? Everyone?
The most cautious (and possibly wisest) among us would say all of the above. And it’s increasingly hard to refute their warnings. Late last year, President Obama signed the latest iteration of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a law that comes up for annual renewal. The problem with this year’s version, say critics, is that it includes provisions that would allow the US military to detain anyone — including US citizens — anywhere in the world, without trial or due process, if they are suspected of terrorist activities. Moreover, NDAA provides such an ambiguous definition of “terrorist activity” that groups like Occupy Wall Street or Anonymous could fall under this perilous category.
It must be pointed out that President Obama included a signing statement with NDAA that guaranteed that his administration would not use the law to indefinitely detain US citizens. Needless to say, that has done little to quell the cognizant public’s outrage.
So, what to make of all this? Most obviously, it is now painfully clear that everything we post online is being watched. And if the FBI gets its new application — which seems to us an inevitability — the eyes with which it sees our tweets and updates will have bionic vision, and even the ability to peer into the future. What is less obvious is how the government’s quest to protect the public good will be abused to trample legitimate free speech and lawful public dissent.
In short: Big Brother is real. He is watching. So be careful what you say online today — it could be used against you tomorrow.
You do realize that Facebook already does this to push ads to you!
yeah, but facebook can’t bust in the door and scream NDAA and keep you in prison forever without trial.
Wow, I smell desperation. You know this is probably a good thing. I mean, if they’ve reached the point were they need to implement this sort of nonsense, then their breaking point can’t be that farther away! I mean seriously, can I get the FBI to babysit me please? It’s just one conspiracy to the next with these shadowy government agencies. Get a life guys.
FBI HANDS OFF the internet! Don’t dare turn this country into a police state!
vevc
Here’s an idea. Don’t post dumb stuff on facebook. Or, don’t use facebook at all. Face to face conversation is the hardest thing to monitor, and because of the heresay factor the hardest to use as evidence for persecution. For awhile now I’ve had the belief that once they gain complete control over the internet (the only hope currently for instantaneous communication thus making cover ups that much more difficult), or shut it down, we’re all in for it…or they are…hopefully the latter…absolute power corrupts absolutely…you’d think they would have heard this line before, and possibly start a focus on advertising for true personal responsibility or something…seems more American…us governing ourselves and not having a currency inspired ruling class…We the people seem to have forgotten we’re the majority…what we need is to get off the computer, the couch, out of the bar, or wherever, and start taking an active role in what has become a MONSTER of a government…they can’t censor us all… ;)
No wonder the US of A is in such a mess right now….. too much predictive paranoia.
The sad thing is there are still waaay too many people who will see this and be like “oh they’re working hard to prevent crime and fight terror”. But the reality is that they are causing the terror and using our tax money to put out the fires that they set. This whole problem/reaction/solution game is getting REALLY old.
……..and a lot of contractors for the government are making billions of dollars on our paranoia.
Wow, that is a MAJOR violation of the Constitution! Aren’t my papers safe from unreasonable search and seizure without a Court Order? That should have applied to online forms, opinions, etc. This madness is brought to you by the Police State, which was made possible by 9/11. Unfortunately no-one is safe in a Police State and just like in the former USSR, everyone is a target! What is going to prevent a politically modivated President from using this “tool” to round up his political opponents and charge them (or not!) and hold them for terrorism? Again, people need to write their Congresspeople about this and Congress needs to tell the FBI: “Hands off” Last I checked, we are supposed to be a free nation, but increasingly this country is looking more and more like the former USSR.
If only the author had mentioned the actual author of Minority Report, Philip K. Dick. The story is far more frightening, paranoid and relevant to this article than the movie, and his novel, A Scanner Darkly, is another prescient nightmare about the erosion of privacy and a surveillance state. Of course Orwell is relevant too, but Dick’s fiction encapsulates the “future is now,” and warns against complacency. There’s an added element of horror in his novels, where our virtual selves become more real than the physical. Warning, your avatar may serve as a “Wanted Poster.”
It is insane for the government to have that kind of power. So sad, what the world is becoming. I just want to go liv eon an island away from all of that. I could have been happier 100 or 1000 years ago.
I understand the slippery slope arguments and do agree with many but, people tend to overestimate their own importance. There’s MANY things that can be subject to abuse but do we REALLY need to stifle what might be a useful tool for the FBI and LE (the ones that actually do their jobs properly) because there’s a chance it COULD be taken beyond what it was initially intended for?
I’m not going to live in fear. If they come to take me away because I dared to speak out then so be it.
Give me liberty or give me death!
agreed.
scary, giving somebody delusional and paranoid with such a vast scope of authority is simply scary….
You are wrong on a key point: THIS is what Bushbama said in his signing statement, which has no force of law anyway: “Moreover, I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite MILITARY detention without trial of American citizens”. He did NOT rule out such detention by CIA, DHS, FBI etc.
Aaaaah, the game of word play! Excellent point! Though in order to be detained by the NDAA, doesn’t the president have to give the direct order to detain them? This supposedly isn’t for “normal” criminals. At least, I thought I read something along those lines when I read through the bill.
“JesterKing”? How about “SpinSerf”?
Post the exact wording from “your reading of the bill” that legitimizes your comment and proves you are not a plant for the regime.
I’m not trying to spin anything. I am agreeing with you. I was saying how I understood it when I read it. I don’t agree with NDAA, and feel it’s a gross over extension of power by the federal government, put in place to squash any and all uprising from the people. Evidently, you missed the whole “excellent point” that I wrote as well. You must have also missed the biggest post (besides the actual article), down there \/ complaining about how I loath draconian laws.
But if you want, I will go back over the bill, at my pleasure, and see where my confusion arises, and post it up here for your approval.
P.S. I didn’t vote for Obama, and I wont vote for Obama. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t vote for a republican either. Both parties do not represent the majority of the people. They are just two wings on the same bird. The two party system has failed us.
At my leisure, not “at my pleasure”.
Understood. And agreed:
http://amerikanreich.com/2012/01/04/american-elections-false-choices-hiding-other-false-choices/
being that I am at work right now… I think it would be wise not to go to a site called “amerikanrich.com”. haha. I’ll check it out later when I get home.
Yeah, is there anyone left who still believes in the “red states” and “blue states” fairy tales? I sure f***ing hope not. Come on people, can we please graduate from preschool?? Or will we get held back again like we did during the last 10 pre$idents. Can we do anything at all without asking permission from the NWO or having them explain to us “what our options are” using their rigged media and propaganda?
Problem is it doesn’t stop here, they will use it to arrest pot smokers as well as murders and ‘terrorists’.
It will also be used to suppress speech and dissent of any kind. Much like someone on a ‘list’ can’t turn their porch lights on, it will be used to enforce minor lifestyle laws that the average citizen has no way of knowing before being branded a ‘criminal’ for life.
It doesn’t stop with terrorists and pedophiles. When they can get ‘dirt’ on anyone, when everyone is a search away from arrest and persecution, they have complete control over everything you do. They will show up one day, or maybe just email, and ‘suggest’ that you don’t criticized the government so much before you even realized you wanted to.
Soros is right, we are only a few years off riots in the street over food shortages. They will use that as an excuse to persecute the general citizenry randomly to instill fear of the government, much as they currently do against ‘pedophiles’.
You’ve lost everything because you didn’t shoot enough cops when you could. Now you have no chance, no freedom, and no hope. It’s all over but the shooting…
“They, who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” B.Franklin
Jesterking- TfuckingL;dr
But yea. Three cheers for soon to be no privacy!
muh bad. cliffnotes: HR 1981 pushes ISP’s to record all of our actions for 18 months. Crime is on the decline in the states. Parents don’t pay enough attention to their kids and that is 99% of the problems with bullying in our schools. Terrorists aren’t going to be tweeting and using facebook to publically say what they are going to do, so the only people who will be monitored are law abiding citizens for no good reason. The FBI wants to create a profiling database, just like the nazi’s did. It’s a slippery slop.
in a nuttshell. sorry for the tl;dr… I get amped when it comes to invasion of privacy.
Faking kool
Asa, the difference is that perhaps Facebook will take a single word that you said 2 years ago to select what it thinks is the perfect ad for you today.
The FBI will use that single word as probable cause to justify wiretapping or GPS tracking, or simply to detain you indefinitely.
F*cking Stazi…..
Who get s to define what “US domestic terror data” is? A teaparty rally? and occupy rally? a peace rally? a ron paul fund raiser?
Right, because, you know, dragnets are the only reasonable and effective procedure. Anyone remember McCarthy and his good buddy J. Edgar Hoover?
Seriously, WHO CARES????
Sounds like what facebook already does ha ha but seriously im cool with them using informtion people so blatantly put out in the public domain.
You know that this information is not ‘blatantly put in the public domain’. They predicted riots in Egypt by the number of curse words used on twitter.
You wouldn’t post that you are planning to go join a riot on twitter, but cursing? Other ordinary activities that one would ‘think’ have no predictive use are actually very meaningful.
What will happen is that a handful of kids will riot, then the police will show up at your door and arrest you and hold you for a week or two because you are ‘predicted to be a possible rioter’. You’ll be thrown in jail, possibly raped, and fed food you are allergic to all because an algorithmic took a totally innocent comment you made about the cops being fascist bullies when you were a teenager the wrong way.
Sounds like Person of Interest.
Well they will screw up right away with the machine that translates immediately in to 12 different languages because there is no machine on earth that can translate completely accurately, except of course for humans. Chaos.
Stupid. Soon there will be absolutely no privacy on earth.
we give it away on a silver platter, and people don’t care. It used to be, asking a man his name was considered an invasion of privacy…
“It must be pointed out that, President Obama included a signing statement with NDAA that guaranteed that his administration would not use the law to indefinitely detain US citizens.”
So is this the Patriot Act of the future, or is it too broad in scope to be considered that? I don’t like that the FBI would have access to our information or can use it to try and predict our actions, but aren’t we kind of asking them to do this when we claim there is little being done to stop bullying in our schools or to prevent hate crimes?
I hear my neighbors all the time complaining about law enforcement and teachers doing nothing to prevent bullys from picking on kids or to stop these kids that show up to school with guns. Wouldn’t giving the FBI access to social media information help to prevent these dangerous people? And if it’s too far, how do you expect law enforcement or schools to stop these people without having any tools to do so?
“They, who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” B.Franklin
I am all for stopping violent crimes, but where do you draw the line? Fact is, crime levels are on the decline in the US. Giving the FBI the ability to “wiretap” our social network pages is pretty much the equivalent of what is going on with HR 1981, where under the guise of protecting our children from Child Pornography, it would be mandated that all ISPs were to keep a log of all your actions, not limited to your browsing history without warrant, or subpoena.
I don’t expect law enforcement to be any more proactive in ending the conflicts that you outlined… bullying, hate crimes, kids bringing guns to school. All of these things comes down to family and education. The problems (9/10 times anyway) really lie with the families, and their interactions with their children’s lives. If you’re telling me that you didn’t know Jr. was depressed and couldn’t see the signs that he was going to shoot up his school, there’s something wrong there. You’re not paying attention enough. As for teachers, they are trained in how to handle children, and situations of bullying/violence. Most of the time teacher’s hands are tied because they are to report the offense to the principal/parents or in some more extreme cases the police. This is where the tie ups come in to play. Police have lack of evidence (even though a teachers word is evidence enough) for the police to even bother.
Bullying, I feel, is really a part of life. Honestly, bullying teaches you to deal horrible situations, and teaches you to stand up for yourself. I was bullied all through middle school. I got into 4 fights, because punks wanted to pick on me because I was quiet and nice. It wasn’t until the last one where I decided I wasn’t going to take it anymore and beat the kid so bad he went crying to the teacher. I ended up pressing charges on him, and having a restraining order put on him. I wasn’t a little twerp either. I played football all my life, and for 7 years prior to that. Our country is becoming a place where everyone “deserves” to be a winner. We no longer can handle not getting that trophy. If bullying is happening to your child, be proactive about it as a parent, and deal with it the proper way. But then again, that requires the parent to be a parent. Anyway I digress. Most issues at school can simply be resolved with more familial interaction.
Now, understand as I’m sure you already do, that systems like this are already in play, but not for social media. Special web crawlers have a flagging system. I know google has a flagging system as well that will indicate when suspect searches have been entered. This concept is nothing new… It’s been around forever. The thing I don’t like about this proposed idea is, it involves social networks. Which have already become quite public in the respects of personal information and corporations? Now that facebook has decided that our information is really their information, the government is going to capitalize on it and start creating a profiling database of all some 300 million users. You know what other government from history also put its people in a profiling database, right? yeah, you get where I’m going with that. It’s a slippery slope.
Sorry for this rant… I am just a huge advocate to privacy, and know exactly what this would be used for, and not because I am some conspiracy theorist…
The FBI is reading this and getting ready to come after you for these treasonous statements against the fatherland.
heh, if the FBI was staging a raid on me, I would have known a week ago ;)
Cause you were in your safehouse with Kimdotcom?
i haz a shotgun?
and a saw
he should have released the hounds…
Hahaha
IMHO if they are going to allow bullying, they need to allow any of hundreds of other minor crimes also.
That’s the problem with modern Amerika. We blow EVERYTHING way out of proportion. We use the sledgehammer of the law to ruin the life of a kid who just needed to be talked to about being nice. A 18 year old sleeps with a 17 year old and is branded unemployable for life, and can’t turn his porch light on anymore.. A pot smoker gets 3-9 years for a herb he consumes in the privacy of his home, hurting exactly nobody. You can’t buy liquor on Sundays, subject to a 2000 fine and a month in jail.
Our system has no sense of proportion, and these tools will be used like a sledgehammer against people who don’t deserve it.
The US has also become a nation of “winners”. Everyone has to get a trophy. No one can suffer the angst of defeat. Even though losing helps build character and teaches us how to persevere.If children never learn how to handle defeat, adults will never know how to handle defeat. Depression will be high, work production will be low. But hey, lets give everybody in little Billy’s little league a trophy, because we don’t keep score, and everyone comes in first!
/facepalm