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The FBI Got Its Hands on Data That Twitter Wouldn't Give the CIA (theverge.com)
The FBI is using a tool called Dataminr to track criminals and terrorist groups on Twitter, according to documents spotted by The Verge. In a contract document, the agency says Dataminr's Advanced Alerting Tool allows it "to search the complete Twitter firehose, in near real-time, using customizable filters." However, the practice seems to violate Twitter's developer agreement, which prohibits the use of its data feed for surveillance or spying purposes. From the report:"Twitter is used extensively by terrorist organizations and other criminals to communicate, recruit, and raise funds for illegal activity," the FBI wrote in a contracting document. "With increased use of Twitter by subjects of FBI investigations, it is critical to obtain a service which will allow the FBI to identify relevant information from Twitter in a timely fashion." [...] Earlier this year, Twitter revoked API access to a tool called Geofeedia, citing the same clause in the Developer agreement, after a reports showed the tool had been used by police to target protestors in Baltimore. Facebook was also a Geofeedia customer, and used it to catch an intruder in Mark Zuckerberg's office. This isn't the first time Dataminr has run up against Twitter's anti-surveillance clause. In May, Twitter revoked CIA access to Dataminr, a move that was taken as part of a larger ban on US intelligence agencies using the product.
Information sharing between agencies was made completely legal by the Homeland Security Act. As long as the initial agency obtains the information legally, it can be shared with ANY other government agency, law enforcement or not, with no legal restrictions whatsoever.
It's worth noting that the two organizations have different legal restraints. So it is possible for the FBI to have access legally via a court warrant which the CIA, not being a law enforcement agency couldn't get. This also indicates that illegal cooperation between agencies is a serious risk.
Nothing is illegal anymore when it comes to combating "terrorism", and this is just another example of offering up a proxy in order for the CIA to obtain the information they asked for.
The data is too sensitive and the potential for privacy violation is too high for the FBI or CIA to be given access, but it's perfectly fine for hedge funds, advertisers, newspapers, and, well, any other asshole with a checkbook?
Really?