BitShare
Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, YouTube are all monitored by the Government
Well this is some interesting information I just came across in the twittersphere. Maybe this is not news to some, but for me it was new in the sense that it is published official information and figured it was worthwhile sharing. Back about a year ago the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established the Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative.
Before if you thought “Big Brother” was watching, but didn’t have proof and your friends called you crazy, you can now tell them they are wrong. The Social Media Initiative is a program run by DHS that monitors social media outlets to assist governmental agencies to provide situational awareness.
According to the DHS, “situational awareness” is “information gathered from a variety of sources that, when communicated to emergency managers and decision makers, can form the basis for incident management decision-making.”
In a document (.PDF) provided by the DHS that outlines this Initiative, it says that Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is only collected when it lends credibility to the report or facilitates the Government in various situations such as life or death scenarios all the way to reporters and bloggers who post information to these social media outlets. You can read that as the DHS can collect as much PII as they would like so they can be “aware” of what’s happening on social media sites.
What is amusing to me is in this 23-page document, in regards to your privacy it says “there is a risk that the [National Operations Center] NOC will receive PII or other identifiable information that is not relevant to this Initiative.” Fabulous. All information obtained will be maintained for a period of up to five years. You do have the right to request from the DHS access to this information (if you think the DHS has obtained your information), however they have no requirement or obligation to provide it to you. Double-whammy.
The DHS also uses keyword looks ups on social media sites to help dig through all the data to find information they are interested in. Some keywords listed in the document are: “Dirty bomb”, “shots fired”, “virus”, “human to animal”, “mutation”, “outbreak”, “drug cartel”, “drug war”, “meth lab”, “hacker” and the most ambiguous “breaking news.”
So here it is, the full list (mirror) of social media sites the government is monitoring so they can assess “situational awareness.”
General Search
Collecta http://collecta.com
RSSOwl http://www.rssowl.org
Social Mention http://socialmention.com
Spy http://www.spy.appspot.com
Who’s Talkin http://www.whostalkin.com
Shrook RSS reader http://www.utsire.com/shrook
Video
Hulu http://www.hulu.com
iReport.com http://www.ireport.com
Live Leak http://www.liveleak.com
Magma http://mag.ma
Time Tube http://www.dipity.com/mashups/timetube
Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com
Youtube http://www.youtube.com
MySpace Video http://vids.myspace.com
Maps
Global Incident Map http://globalincidentmap.com
Google Flu Trends http://www.google.org/flutrends
Health Map http://www.healthmap.org/en
IBISEYE http://www.ibiseye.com
Stormpulse http://www.stormpulse.com
Trends Map http://www.trendsmap.com
Photos
Flickr http://www.flickr.com
Picfog http://picfog.com
Twicsy http://www.twicsy.com
Twitcaps http://www.twitcaps.com
Twitter/API
Twitter/API http://www.twitter.com
Twitter Search
Monitter http://www.monitter.com
Twazzup http://www.twazzup.com
Tweefind http://www.tweefind.com
Tweetgrid http://tweetgrid.com
Tweetzi http://tweetzi.com
Twitter Search http://search.twitter.com/advanced
Twitter Trends
Newspapers on Twitter http://www.newspapersontwitter.com
Radio on Twitter http://www.radioontwitter.com
Trendistic http://trendistic.com
Trendrr http://www.trendrr.com
TV on Twitter http://www.tvontwitter.com
Tweet Meme http://tweetmeme.com
TweetStats http://tweetstats.com
Twellow http://www.twellow.com
Twendz http://twendz.waggeneredstrom.com
Twitoaster http://twitoaster.com
Twitscoop http://www.twitscoop.com
Twitturly http://twitturly.com
We Follow http://wefollow.com
Facebook
It’s Trending http://www.itstrending.com/news
Facebook http://www.facebook.com
MySpace http://www.myspace.com
MySpace (limited search) http://www.myspace.com
Blogs Aggs
ABCNews Blotter http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter
al Sahwa http://al-sahwa.blogspot.com
AllAfrica http://allafrica.com
Avian Flu Diary http://afludiary.blogspot.com
Bnews http://www.bnews.com
Borderfire http://www.borderfirereport.net
Report Borderland Beat http://www.borderlandbeat.com
Brickhouse Security http://blog.brickhousesecurity.com
Chem.Info http://www.chem.info/default.aspx
Chemical Facility Security News http://chemical-facility-security-news.blogspot.com
ComputerWorld Cybercrime Topic Center http://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/82/Cybercrime+and+Hacking
CounterTerrorism Blog http://www.counterterrorismblog.com
Crisisblogger http://crisisblogger.wordpress.com
Cryptome http://cryptome.org
Danger Room http://www.wired.com/dangerroom
Drudge Report http://drudgereport.com
El Blog Del Narco http://elblogdelnarco.blogspot.com
Emergency Management Magazine http://www.emergencymgmt.com
Foreign Policy Passport http://blog.foreignpolicy.com
Global Security Newswire http://gsn.nti.org/gsn
Global Terror Alert http://www.globalterroralert.com
Global Voices Network http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/world/americas/haiti
Google Blog Search http://blogsearch.google.com
Guerra Contra El Narco http://guerracontraelnarco.blogspot.com
H5N1 Blog http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1
Homeland Security Today http://www.hstoday.us
Homeland Security Watch http://www.hlswatch.com
Huffington Post http://huffingtonpost.com
Hurricane Information Center http://gustav08.ning.com
HurricaneTrack http://www.hurricanetrack.com
InciWeb http://www.inciweb.org
Informed Comment http://www.juancole.com
Jihad Watch http://www.jihadwatch.org
Krebs on Security http://krebsonsecurity.com
LA w http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/law
LA Wildfires Blog http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/law/wildfires
Livesay Haiti Blog http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com
LongWarJournal http://www.longwarjournal.org
Malware Intelligence Blog http://malwareint.blogspot.com
MEMRI http://www.memri.org
MexiData.info http://mexidata.info
MS-13 News and Analysis http://msthirteen.com
Narcotrafico en Mexico http://narcotraficoenmexico.blogspot.com
National Defense Magazine http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org
National Terror Alert http://www.nationalterroralert.com
NEFA Foundation http://www.nefafoundation.org
Newsweek Blogs http://blog.newsweek.com
Nuclear Street http://nuclearstreet.com/blog
NYTimes Lede Blog http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com
Plowshares Fund http://www.ploughshares.org/news-analysis/blog
Popular Science Blogs http://www.popsci.com
Port Strategy http://www.portstrategy.com
Public Intelligence http://publicintelligence.net
ReliefWeb http://www.reliefweb.int
RigZone http://www.rigzone.com
Science Daily http://www.sciencedaily.com
STRATFOR http://www.stratfor.com
Techrati http://techrati.com
Terror Finance Blog http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog
The Latin Americanist http://ourlatinamerica.blogspot.com
Threat Level http://www.wired.com/threatlevel
Threat Matrix http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix
Tickle the Wire http://www.ticklethewire.com
Tribuna Regional http://latribunaregional.blogspot.com
TruckingInfo.com http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/index.asp
United Nations IRIN http://www.irinnews.org
Ushahidi Haiti http://haiti.ushahidi.org
War on Terrorism http://terrorism-online.blogspot.com
WikiLeaks http://wikileaks.org
WireUpdate http://wireupdate.com
