The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is reportedly funding companies that spy on Twitter and Instagram feeds to monitor any signs of "unusual activity."
Through its venture capital firm, In-Q-Tel (IQT), the CIA has made investments in "social media mining and surveillance" companies previously undisclosed. These include PATHAR, TransVoyant, Databricks, Dataminr, and Geofeedia.
The information was obtained from a document released by The Intercept, detailing the schedule of a recent "CEO Summit" of 28 IQT portfolio companies concluded in February. From the itinerary, the standout companies provided "unique tools to mine data from platforms such as Twitter."
PATHAR
PATHAR has a product called "Dunami" that monitors social media sites for "networks of association, centers of influence and potential signs of radicalization." These social media sites include, but are not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
TransVoyant
TransVoyant offers procedures that analyze multiple data points to determine potential "decision-makers" who could organize "gang incidents" and situations threatening to the press. The tech company recently worked with the U.S. military to utilize satellite, radar, and drone surveillance data.
Databricks
Databricks' "Spark" can sort through big chunks of data rapidly, which the International Business Machine (IBM) has labeled as "the most significant open source project of the next decade." The tech company utilizes the cloud to host "big data analytics and processing platforms."
Dataminr
Dataminr has automated learning machines that mark trends in streams from Twitter by cross-referencing data gathered from other unusual clusters. These processes "directly license" Twitter data streams, for clients such as police departments, to "visualize" any sign of purported tendencies.
Geofeedia
Geofeedia employs geotagging technology to monitor real-time movements, such as Greenpeace mobilizations, student protests, minimum wage rallies and other political activities. The data is utilized by corporations, including McDonald's and the Mall of America, and law enforcement agencies in Detroit, Oakland, and Chicago, among other police departments.
A Violation of Privacy Rights?
Senior staff attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union, Lee Rowland, believes such surveillance tactics employed by the CIA and other government bodies, along with private sectors, may infringe upon the public's rights due to unwarranted suspicion.
"The courts have rightly recognized that when millions of bits of data are aggregated into a dossier about your behavior, that is no longer properly public and violates privacy rights," said Rowland.
"When you have private companies deciding which algorithms get you a so-called threat score, or make you a person of interest, there's obviously room for targeting people based on viewpoints or even unlawfully targeting people based on race or religion," Rowland explained.
Photo: Ludovic Bertron | Flickr
