FBI plans monitoring social network

PanARMENIAN.Net - Users of social networks like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter may have to watch what they do online - the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is planning to continuously monitor the global output of these services.

A blog post on science-oriented website NewScientist.com said the FBI claims it can use data pulled from these services to better respond to - and even foresee - crises.

The FBI has quietly released details of its plans to continuously monitor these social networks, NewScientist.com added.

"The bureau's wish list calls for the system to be able to automatically search "publicly available" material from Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites for keywords relating to terrorism, surveillance operations, online crime and other FBI missions. Agents would be alerted if the searches produce evidence of 'breaking events, incidents, and emerging threats,'" GMA News reported quoting NewScientist.com.

It said the FBI, in a document released January 19, is looking for companies who might want to build a monitoring system for the FBI. Potential contractors were invited to reply by February 10.

Under the plan, FBI agents can display tweets and other information captured by the system on a map, where they can add layers of other data. Such data may include the locations of US embassies and military installations, details of previous terrorist attacks and the output from local traffic cameras. Also, the document suggests that the bureau wants to use social media to target specific users or groups of users.