Gene's Footnotes

I have never been impressed by the messenger and always inspect the message, which I now understand is not the norm. People prefer to filter out discordant information. As such, I am frequently confronted with, "Where did you hear that...." Well, here you go. If you want an email version, send me an email.

June 12, 2014

Twitter: Monitored By Government

From BBC. 

 Your tax dollars at work.

US Secret Service seeks Twitter sarcasm detector

Phone users with Twitter logoThe Secret Service wants its own automated system of social media monitoring

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The US Secret Service is seeking a Twitter sarcasm detector.
The agency has put out a work tender looking for a software system to analyse social media data.
The software should have, among other things, the "ability to detect sarcasm and false positives".
A spokesman for the service said it currently used the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Twitter analytics and needed its own, adding: "We aren't looking solely to detect sarcasm."
The Washington Post quoted Ed Donovan as saying: 
"Our objective is to automate our social media monitoring process. Twitter is what we analyse.
"This is real-time stream analysis. The ability to detect sarcasm and false positives is just one of 16 or 18 things we are looking at."
Prism controversy
The tender was put out earlier this week on the US government's Federal Business Opportunities website.
It sets out the objectives of automating social media monitoring and "synthesising large sets of social media data".
Specific requirements include "audience and geographic segmentation" and analysing "sentiment and trend".
The software also has to have "compatibility with Internet Explorer 8". The browser was released more than five years ago.
The agency does not detail the purpose of the analysis but does set out its mission, which includes "preserving the integrity of the economy and protecting national leaders and visiting heads of state and government"....
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Notice there is no hesitancy to state that Twitter in being monitored for 16 to 18 "things." I wonder, can  a private company monitor Twitter?  If it is technically possible, would it be a crime?  If so,is the Treasury Department above the law?
Most importantly, how do we tolerate fascism?  Please, don't get me wrong, this is not saracasm.


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posted by Gene | 6:12 AM

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