Are You Being Cyber-Stalked...by the Feds?
Posted by Steve Burgess at 12/10/2009 5:39 PM 
Categories: cyberstalking
Tags: cyberstalking EFF Electronic Frontier Foundation FOIA
Categories: cyberstalking
Tags: cyberstalking EFF Electronic Frontier Foundation FOIA
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) of San Francisco wants to know how government agencies are using data they have been collecting through social networking sites. Along with Samuelson Clinic at UC Berkeley (Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law) the EFF has filed suit against the DOD, the CIA, the DOJ, Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The action has been brought after requests through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) went unfulfilled, and was filed December 1, 2009.
The EFF points out that government use of information gathered from social networking sites has appeared in the news more and more of late. The FOIA suit wants to find out how the government uses private data that it collects on individuals through Facebook and other social networking sites and requests eight classes of documents. The suit was filed when government agencies were asked, through FOIA requests, how the aforementioned agencies were using such data. The documents requested included those describing how the government may instruct investigators to use fake identities, and other guides, manuals or instructions that the agencies provides for means of collecting data from social networking sites. The EFF says that said agencies did not respond to the requests.
From the filing: "Plaintiff Electronic Frontier Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation ... donor-supported membership organization that works to inform policymakers and the public about civil liberties issues related to technology, and to act as a defender of those liberties. In support of its mission, EFF uses the FOIA to obtain and disseminate information concerning the activities of federal agencies."
The suit specifically references several news stories, including the AP story, "Fraud Fugitive Busted After Unwise Friend Request," a Wired Magazine story, "FBI Investigated Coder for Liberating Paywalled Court Records," a NY Times story "Arrest Puts Focus on Protesters’ Texting," and others as evidence that government agencies are using social networking to conduct surveillance.
The full complaint is here, as a PDF.
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