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Federal Agents Quietly Using Social Media

Posted by kdawson on from the friend-of-the-devil dept.

SpuriousLogic passes along this excerpt from the ChiTrib: "The Feds are on Facebook. And MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter, too. US law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects and gather private information, according to an internal Justice Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues related to privacy and crime-fighting. ... The document... makes clear that US agents are already logging on surreptitiously to exchange messages with suspects, identify a target's friends or relatives and browse private information such as postings, personal photographs, and video clips. Among other purposes: Investigators can check suspects' alibis by comparing stories told to police with tweets sent at the same time about their whereabouts. Online photos from a suspicious spending spree... can link suspects or their friends to robberies or burglaries." The FoIA lawsuit was filed by the EFF, which has posted two documents obtained from the action, from the DoJ and Internal Revenue (more will be coming later). The rights group praises the IRS for spelling out limitations and prohibitions on deceptive use of social media by its agents — unlike the DoJ. The US Marshalls and the BATFE could not find any documents related to the FoIA request, so presumably they have no guidelines or prohibitions in this area.

9 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Is anyone surprised? by calibre-not-output · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you need a leaked document to know that spies are spying, you fail at life. Obviously information-gathering agencies will deploy personnel wherever there are large amounts of potentially useful information to be gathered.

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    Nothing lasts forever but the certainty of change.
  2. I'd hope so. by Mekkah · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you are making your information publicly available, wouldn't you expect your government to take advantage of it?

    Hint: Don't accept friend requests from someone named, Uncle Sam, Uncle Sammy, or that super model that wants to know where you live and were Saturday night between 10pm and 2 am.

    Oh and don't tweet if you're gonna lie about it later to police.

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    ~Mekkah
    1. Re:I'd hope so. by lxt · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Exactly. People who are stupid enough to fall for it deserve what they get.

      This isn't the government going behind your back, putting you under covert surveillance. It's completely in the open. A friend of mine used to work for the MA state police, in the computer forensics unit. He was amazed at the number of gang members who would just openly accept his friend request on Facebook, which would lead to him quietly beavering away to figure out the social network of the gang, where they met, what they got up to. Sneaky? Perhaps, but not illegal.

      Really, people are just plain stupid.

    2. Re:I'd hope so. by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

      However, the government should not be taking advantage of stupidity to undermine our rights. It is one thing for an agent to communicate with people who are already under investigation -- such as with your state police friend who communicates with gang members -- but it is an entirely different story when the government starts randomly probing into people's lives. The line is very, very fine here...

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      Palm trees and 8
    3. Re:I'd hope so. by Dog-Cow · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We're not talking about the police asking Facebook to hand over server storage so they can browse at their leisure. We're talking about government agents using Facebook or Twitter the exact same way that you or I would use it. There's nothing wrong with that.

      I suppose that it's possible someone could have an issue with possible entrapment, but I can't see where there's a privacy issue just because you don't think the stranger whose invite you accepted might be a cop.

  3. Also.. by e2d2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They can also meet you at a bar and pretend they want some coke. A fucking travesty of justice I tell you.

    1. Re:Also.. by Thinboy00 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hint: Don't friend random strangers on Facebook et al.

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      $ make available
  4. Why is this different? by captaindomon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is this different than what the FBI does offline? It's just an online version of an offline undercover sting, right?

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    Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
  5. Good by SoupGuru · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they weren't doing something like this, I'd wonder what the hell was wrong with them.

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    What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable