Posted on 09/01/2009 7:30:36 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
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.
Now the same people at the White House are at it again with an ambitious plan to harvest huge amounts of information from the web and specifically social networking sites.
Given the White House’s recent abuse of its New Media operations, this huge, new secretive program is yet another sign that this Administration is at best indifferent to privacy rights and at worst prepared to violate civil liberties for political purposes.
Perhaps anticipating negative reaction to the invasiveness of the plan, a justification is provided in a Q&A. section of the solicitation. Question #9 reads:
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.
Of course, this interpretation of the Presidential Records Act is so expansive that virtually any communication mentioning the president or the Administration could become subject to collection and archiving under the Act. This is not out of an “abundance of caution,” but out of an over-abundance of power. President Obama should make sure that this plan goes no further.
And this is supposed to shock us how?
Does this mean they are watching free republic too?
If they are ...
Kiss my ass Odumbo!
Unless I’m mistaken this is in direct violation of the Constitution. Of course it would take the rest of his term to find out in the courts. It should be stopped now....just like any health bill.
Where’s the voices who were screaming about the wire-tapping?
CRICKETS chirping!
Time to make myself invisible. Too late.
Every day there is another stupid boneheaded communist stunt pulled by this Bozo.
EVERY day. I wake to it.....I go to bed to it.
Page 2, Summary: Currently, the Government team is capturing the data and content both programmatically (via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from social networks) and manually (through daily screen shots). EOP requires a provider to ensure we automatically capture this content in a scalable, efficient and reliable manner.
The bastards are already sucking out information via public APIs and manual screen shots. And now they want a "scalable, efficient" solution to spy on Americans.
Bush was crucified endlessly for spying on foreign nationals intent on our destruction. Where's the outcry over this abuse?
This is what we get when we have a foreign usurper in the WH.
I suppose they will claim they have a "presence" on FR and suck this site clean every day, too.
Okay, here’s a comment...and you don’t have to go to my Facbook page to read it...F-U!!!!! Aimed at Obama, not my FReeper friends.
FU FU FUBO!!!!!! Hey, Obama can I go to Sheriff Joe’s jail. LOL!!! When will the sheeple wake up.
The more accepted abbreviation:
F U B O
This pathetic Kenyan worm can go too hell.
Thank you for letting me know! I’ll say it again F U B O !!
Ping
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I read yesterday that the Consumer Protection Agency is scanning Craigs List and E-bay.
Good thing I don’t Twitter my inner thoughts.
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