FBI, Feds collect Facebook, social media data; Why are you surprised?
By Larry Dignan | March 17, 2010, 5:59am PDT
Summary: The Feds have training courses on gathering information on social networks, identifying relationships, chasing the bad guys and going undercover, according to documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The biggest surprise: That this would surprise anyone.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service have training courses on gathering information on social networks, identifying relationships, chasing the bad guys and going undercover, according to documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The biggest surprise: Social networking users are surprised by any of this government activity.
EFF Posts Documents Detailing Law Enforcement Collection of Data From Social Media Sites
EFF has posted documents shedding light on how law enforcement agencies use social networking sites to gather information in investigations. The records, obtained from the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Justice Criminal Division, are the first in a series of documents that will be released through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case that EFF filed with the help of the UC Berkeley Samuelson Clinic.
One of the most interesting files is a 2009 training course that describes how IRS employees may use various Internet tools — including social networking sites and Google Street View — to investigate taxpayers.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/eff-posts-documents-detailing-law-enforcement
Criminal Social Networking Information Gathering Justice Department March 2010
https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/social_network/20100303__crim_socialnetworking.pdf
- JW
