Posted on 09/02/2009 3:38:34 AM PDT by PowerPro
NLPC has uncovered a plan by the White House New Media operation to hire a technology vendor to conduct a massive, secret effort to harvest personal information on millions of Americans from social networking websites.
The information to be captured includes comments, tag lines, emails, audio, and video. The targeted sites include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and others – any space where the White House “maintains a presence.”
In the course of investigating procurement by the White House New Media office, NLPC discovered a 51-page solicitation of bids that was filed on Friday, August 21, 2009. Filed as Solicitation # WHO-S-09-0003, it is posted at FedBizzOps.com. Click here to download a 51-page pdf of the solicitation.
While the solicitation specifies a 12-month contract, it allows for seven one-year extensions. It specifies no dollar cap. Other troubling issues include:
extremely broad secrecy terms preventing the vendor from disclosing to the public or the media what information is being captured and archived (page 7, “Restriction Against Disclosure”)
wholesale capturing of comments by non-White House staff on publicly accessible sites
capturing of content of any type (text, graphics, audio, or video)
capturing of comments by both Obama critics and supporters, with no restriction as to how the White House would use the information.
This is the third controversy involving the White House internet operations in less than a month. First, Obama’s New Media operation asked supporters to send information about critics of the White House health care effort to a White House email. This provoked a storm of criticism and the White House retreated. Then large number of people complained of getting email spam from the White House supporting the President’s health care position. Again the White House was forced to back down.
(Excerpt) Read more at nlpc.org ...
Freedom of speech means nothing to these thugs.
If true, then this White House is in a pant load of trouble.
Who is the National Legal and Policy Center?
Are they reputable? Reliable?
I saw this over at Doug Ross’s site...and to my knowledge, he is reputable. Here’s his link discussing this information:
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/09/red-alert-white-house-plans-massive.html
From who?
The media going to run with this?
Or are we just going to be outraged and expect a lot from 2010?
NO ONE calls these clowns on anything it seems....
Thanks!
Why? They have openly broken laws and nothing was said or done. What makes this different?
I am interested in what is meant by "maintains a presence." I have not dug into the document too deeply, but there are some interesting vendor questions at the end:
2. Approximately how many sites are controlled by EOP?
Answer: The 7 networks where the EOP currently maintains a presence are: www.facebook.com/whitehouse www.twitter.com/whitehouse www.myspace.com/whitehouse www.flickr.com/whitehouse www.youtube.com/whitehouse www.vimeo.com/whitehouse www.slideshare.com/whitehouse
6. Will the tool/storage be integrated at EOP or at the vendor's site?
Answer: The government’s preference is the vendor’s site.
7. Does the EOP prefer a hosted solution, or is this system intended to run on their own internal equipment and network?
Answer: The Government requires a hosted solution.
9. The Presidential Records Act does not require the storage or archiving of non-EOP content, as such is there a specific reason as to why the content provided on EOP related websites in the form of comments is included in these archiving procedures?
Answer: The PRA includes in its definition of presidential records content "received"– by PRA components and personnel. Out of an abundance of caution, we are treating comments made by non-PRA personnel on sites on which a PRA component has a presence as presidential records, requiring them to be captured or sampled.
Are they reputable? Reliable?”
I don't know who they are but the solicitation is real at the link that they provide. “FedBizOpps.gov” is the clearing house for government solicitations.
Unless the free media picks this up and exposes it now, no one will know about it, and the American citizens won't be able to stop it.
I believe Oboma is trying to become the next Stalin, and he's trying to stop our Constitutional right to political dissent.
This is why we must make a big deal of this. Now. Call radio shows. Send it to Drudge. Comment and post about it on conservative blogs.
Get the word out now.
Thanks for this. I just posted the link to this on my Facebook page.
Did Nixon have to resign ??
Does Obama need to resign ??
Yep. Passing it on already and planting the seeds. (Anyone out there a RUSH premium member? He'd love to hear about this one.)
This one solicitor question is really important to me because they are having the vendor store the information that they gather at the vendor's site:
6. Will the tool/storage be integrated at EOP or at the vendor's site?
Answer: The government’s preference is the vendor’s site.
Does the White House have a “presence” on Free Republic?
Here is one dissenting opinion they can harvest:
Kiss my big, white, rich, Christian, male, pro-gun, pro-life, government hating, tax hating, terrorist hating, greenhouse gas emitting, freedom loving hind parts.
Can someone get this to Glenn Beck?
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