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, Obamas 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 Presidents health care position. Again the White House was forced to back down.
(Excerpt) Read more at nlpc.org ...
Also, even if the White House tells the supplier to do something illegal, like hack into other accounts or collect keystrokes from non-White House sites, you have to believe a contractor would be too concerned about breaking the communications privacy laws. By the time the case played out, this Administration could be gone and the company would still be on the hook for using spyware.
The key phrase is “shall include.” The RFP does not expressly limit the data collection to messages sent only to EOP maintained pages.
Even if this really smelly program doesn’t have a much broader application planned—and I am not at all convinced they don’t—this is a hugely dangerous precedent. All government programs exploit to the max the tiniest loophole, and interpret even the tightest-range authority in its very broadest possible way. And that goes for all administrations. With this one, we’ve got a real problem on our hands.
I know your call for caution is not meant as a blanket defense, and your reasoned approach would make sense if we were dealing with an administration with a track record of restraint. But this administration has already given us ample reason to reject a default assumption of restraint and respect for individual liberties and personal privacy.
I simply do not trust these people. At all.
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I'm not interpreting this to mean they will capture and store all comments made by anyone about anything made on publically-accessible websites that the EOP has a presence on. I interpret this to mean they will capture and store comments made by non-EOP persons made directly to EOP created pages or sent to EOP accounts.
Before I get too chicken little here, where am I missing it where they'll be capturing and storing more than what is directed directly to the EOP?
Just seeking clarification. - OB1
Is this only if you post to the WH pages on these sites?
Imagine if Bush had done this
It is illegal for the White House to collect data on the people of this country. It is also illegal to conspire to commit this crime. It is also illegal to destroy any records of data collection.
A reporter was trying to get Gibbs to say what he was doing with the records collected on the “spy on your neighbor” scandal who said something to the effect that they weren’t collecting information on people. But if they weren’t collecting it, then they must be destroying it, right?
I’d be stunned if any reporter bothered asking Gibbs about this one.
Got any money left after taxes? The the zero considers you rich and intends to tax you into poverty.
Check out this statement from the Request for Quote (RFQ) “section 2. Scope”:
“The contractor shall properly transfer the captured information, as identified by the EOP (Executive Office of the President), to NARA’s (National Archives and Records Administration) Electronic Records Archive and presentation at the the future Presidential Library.”
And a scarier statment from Section 4. Background:
“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). “
This is a huge data collection effort.
Oh, and Obama is planning his Presidential Library already.
So my question is, have they always collected data on people who write to the WH in any other form?
This isn’t about people writing to the White House...
It is about people communicating with each other about the White House.
The RFQ is scary in what it is clearly directing the contractor to do, but even worse is that it is vague enough to allow loop holes big enough to drive a truck through.
As I read it, they can collect any information they want.
Actual link to request information:
This is for the Executive Office of the President.
Here’s the summary:
“The contractor shall provide the necessary services to capture, store, extract to approved formats, and transfer content published by EOP on publicly-accessible web sites, along with information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP offices under PRA maintains a presence, throughout the term of the contract. The contractor shall if possible, capture, store, extract to approved formats, and transfer content published by EOP on non-public websites. The contractor shall include in the information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence both comments posted on pages created by EOP and messages sent to EOP accounts on those web sites. Publicly-accessible sites may include, but are not limited to social networking sites. The contractor shall provide a user-friendly way of organizing and searching captured information. The contractor shall properly transfer the captured information, as identified by EOP, to NARA in an acceptable format for both preservation in NARA’s Electronic Records Archive and presentation at the future Presidential Library. The Contractor shall provide a method to separate content posted by other EOP component offices as required.”
Excellent reply. I agree, they have forfeited trust.
Yep, that is about the size of it.
The government knows more about me then I do. There is not a lot they can get that they don't already know. It is underhanded how the BO Admin is going about getting new info. I am already in the "system", and have been for years.
Now you can show your disgust by putting this beautiful Obama Joker wallpaper on your iPhone. It fits perfectly!
Simply follow the link posted here, right click on the picture and save to your computer. Then, upload to your iPhone. It's that simple!
Carnivore was implemented during the Clinton administration.
lol did you get this from bloggers and personal?
If you read toward the end of this, it appears this may only be for the specific White House pages on Facebook and Twitter, NOT the entire site because it speaks of being done on sites created by the EOP....obviously only their specific Facebook page was created by them etc.
Still bad, but not as bad as earlier appeared if this is the case. Looks like they may be doing it for records request archive purposes, but it could still be used for bad purposes, which is scary.
“The contractor shall provide the necessary services to capture, store, extract to approved formats, and transfer content published by EOP on publicly-accessible web sites, along with information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP offices under PRA maintains a presence, throughout the term of the contract. The contractor shall if possible, capture, store, extract to approved formats, and transfer content published by EOP on non-public websites. The contractor shall include in the information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence both comments posted on pages created by EOP and messages sent to EOP accounts on those web sites.”
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