Facebook Is a Snitch
January 12th, 2022Via: Reason:
This shouldn’t be a revelation, but posting the details of your life online is not an effective way to keep secrets. Among those trawling for information are government agents who find social media an easy and low-cost means of gathering intelligence, often with the cooperation of both the platforms and their targets. Since the information is easily gathered, cops and their private-sector contractors snoop on us not just to investigate crimes but also while fishing for anything of interest. Worse, instead of curbing such abuses, many politicians want more.
“Social media has become a significant source of information for U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies,” the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law noted in a report released last week. “The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the State Department are among the many federal agencies that routinely monitor social platforms, for purposes ranging from conducting investigations to identifying threats to screening travelers and immigrants.”
