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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.
Wow. Someone is stupid and that someone is you. His point is that the data is already PUBLIC, it is POSTED ON TWITTER. So why make it harder for them to get to the data? They are going to get it no matter what. The difference is that one method is presumably more expensive than another.