The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is planning to develop an application that can track the public's postings to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, in order to aid how it predicts and reacts to criminal behaviour, including public disorder and terrorism.
An FBI request for information document has been published, asking potential contractors to contact the bureau by 10 February. The FBI wants respondents to the document to outline how they would build such a system and how much it would potentially cost.
The bureau said the system it wants must be able to automatically search "publicly available" material from Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites for keywords of interest. FBI agents would be alerted if the searches come up with evidence of "breaking events, incidents, and emerging threats".
Agents would have the ability to display any information on a map, and they could then add other layers of information, including past incidents and locations of important buildings like embassies and military installations.
The document notes that agents need to "locate bad actors and analyse their movements, vulnerabilities, limitations, and possible adverse actions".
Comments
sirjohng said: The CIA have however snooped on British telephones faxes and emails from I understand Fylingdales in Yorkshire for many years past looking for keywords The safest form of communication in this country is the good old fashioned letter with a wax seal believe it or notFunny that the USA is at least as intrusive as Russia the very country it espouses to despise
Alexander Stopher said: The FBI are a load of who dont give a damn about other peoplesprivacy We are all entitled to it
Lardilicious said: WhatYou mean they dont have one already