US federal agencies use social networks to spy on Americans

"Don't make the mistake of thinking you're Facebook's customer, you're not – you're the product, Its customers are the advertisers.""


Social networking sites enable participants to share their lives with their friends and family. With millions of people using sites such as Facebook, such sites are prime targets for agencies seeking to gather intelligence.

Social networking websites are now an integral part of daily life for many people, and as it is for the public, so it is for those responsible for providing security services. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) launched a lawsuit that protests the collection of intelligence information via surveillance of Americans through social media networks. EFF said that while there have been stories emerging in the media about security interests surveying social networks prior to major events such as protests.

The law suit was filed jointly by EFF and a number of other organizations against a handful of American federal agencies, including the CIA, FBI and Citizenship and Immigration on December 1, 2009

"... for refusing to disclose their policies for using social networking sites for investigations, data-collection, and surveillance."

In late September, TechNewsWorld reported that US federal law enforcement agencies were drafting new legislation that would allow those agencies the authority to monitor the internet, including private emails, encrypted communication systems (think Blackberry) and peer-to-peer communication via software such as Skype.