I always figured that Karl Rove and Dick dick Cheney and their minions were probing and prodding the internets during the reign of the Chimperor. Thanks to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and their use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) we know that the Department of Homeland Security (Big Brother) is still out there watching social network sites (SNS), including Daily Kos, through their "Social Networking Monitoring Center (SNMC) conducting surveillance for "items of interest."
Welcome to the brave new world boys and girls. Not to worry. They say they are eliminating your PII (Personally Identifiable Information)just as soon as they read it. And you know that moon really is made of Tillamook Cheddar, extra sharp.
More below
What data is included in PII you might wonder?
Names
Email Addresses
Mailing Addresses
Telephone Numbers
Usernames
Photos
Specific Locations
Credit Card Number
IP Addresses and URL's
The EEF report may be found here:
New FOIA Documents Reveal DHS Social Media Monitoring During Obama Inauguration
It includes a link to a pdf of the DNS Concept of Operations report used to monitor activities prior to President Obama’s inaugural.
DHS SNMC Inauguration Monitoring Report
From the report, they address privacy concerns at the onset.
Privacy Concerns
*SNMC will not collect Personally Identifiable Information (Pii) such as
full name, email address, mailing address, telephone numbers, credit
card number, IP addresses or specific locations during the Inauguration
period.
*Usernames (CowboyJohn or CecilBDeRoadtrip) do not by themselves
identify an individual. Other forms of aliases will not be collected.
*Openly divulged information excluding Pll will be used for future
corroborating purposes and trend analysis during the Inauguration
period.
*In all situations, the SNMC will adhere to the Fair Information Practice
*Principles set forth in DHS Privacy Technology Implementation Guide
And on Page 7 they list a number of specific sites that they will monitor for information
Candidates for analysis
Twitter
MySpace
BlackPlanet
Blogpulse
Blogger
CNN's iReport
TwitterMap
Wikipedia'
CraigsList
Bebo
facebook
YouTube
Digg
DailyKos
Flickr
Friendster
FlickrVision
Hi5
MiGente
NPR
And 30+ others
I wonder if among those 30 others sites like Free Republic, Little Green Goobers or Redstate are included, or if they bother to monitor the wingnuts? I know it is a tough job, but someone has to do it, right?
Besides monitoring for activity prior to the inauguration, DNS is also conducting surveillance on individuals applying for citizenship and immigration. I expect they are looking to see if the Foreigners are really "hooking up" with Americans in their request for green cards, or are looking for evidence to deny applications. I wish they’d put in equal time monitoring the shady off shore investments and tax evasive behaviors of the plutocrats and banksters. You know, to be fair and such.
According the assessment of this story from Computerworld,
DHS scoured social media sites during Obama inauguration for 'items of interest', the IRS and other government agencies have got it covered.
The DHS's monitoring of social networking and other sites for information it considers useful is similar to the current actions of several other federal agencies. Documents obtained by the EFF via FOIA requests have previously shed light on how law enforcement agencies and the Internal Revenue Service are taking advantage of publicly posted data on social media sites to ferret out criminals and tax evaders.
Welcome to the machine. Once upon a time we were cogs in the big bad wheel. Then we became bricks in the Wall. More recently we became the phantasms of the Matrix.
Now? Now we are mere chicken product paste soon to magically made into McNuggets.
Behold! McNuggets is made of People!!
How fucked up is that, I ask you?