How Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter helped police target black activists

[Snarkoleptic]

http://fusion.net/story/356808/facebook-twitter-instagram-geofeedia-tracking/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=blackvoices

Further proof that, if you use a free online service, YOU are the product.

The ACLU announced Tuesday that Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram gave Chicago-based company Geofeedia access to user information that helped law enforcement agencies monitor and target activists of color. Emails between law enforcement and reps for Geofeedia reveal the company’s “special access” to the social media sites, even referring to a “partnership” with Instagram and Facebook. In response to the findings, all three sites—Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter—have terminated Geofeedia’s access to their data.

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As uncovered by the ACLU, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have all provided Geofeedia with varying levels of access to this data, which it then used as a bargaining chip when negotiating with law enforcement. There are no exact numbers on how many people were targeted, but as discussed in a Geofeedia “case study,” they were directly involved in the Baltimore Police Department’s response to the Freddie Gray protests. Calling it a “stroke of luck” that the BPD renewed their Geofeedia contract only days before the protests, the study reveals that law enforcement used facial recognition software to identify specific protestors from social media photos. They then matched that information to outstanding warrants and arrested protestors “directly from the crowd.”

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Most troubling is that Geofeedia is just one part of an entire economy of mass surveillance tools that source similar location-based social media information. Dataminr, MediaSonar, X1 Social Discovery, and Dunami, all have similar scanning, keyword filtering, and real-time geolocation features. Whether these services are collaborating with law enforcement for mass-surveillance has not been revealed, but the conversation on privacy and fears of police overreach continues.

Now can we admit we live in a police/surveillance state?

[heaven05]

1. I hope

these Internet information gatherers will do the same to the white terrorist promising a bloody revolution in which even babies won't be spared.