Posted on 05/04/2021 7:17:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Biden administration is considering using private firms to track the online activity of American citizens in order to get around the Fourth Amendment and other laws that protect Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures and surveillance. The report says that the Biden administration wants to monitor “extremist chatter by Americans online” but can’t do so without a warrant, and thinks private firms can get around the legal restrictions.
Federal authorities “can only browse through unprotected information on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and other open online platforms,” according to CNN.
The plan being discussed inside DHS, according to multiple sources, would, in effect, allow the department to circumvent” restrictions the U.S. government has to surveil American citizens. “A source familiar with the effort said it is not about decrypting data but rather using outside entities who can legally access these private groups to gather large amounts of information that could help DHS identify key narratives as they emerge.
“By partnering with research firms who have more visibility in this space, the DHS could produce information that would likely be beneficial to both it and the FBI, which can’t monitor US citizens in this way without first getting a warrant or having the pretext of an ongoing investigation,” explains CNN. “The CIA and NSA are also limited on collecting intelligence domestically.”
“There’s a tension between wanting to empower [DHS’s intelligence office] to do this kind of workaround domestic terrorism on the one hand and then, on the other hand, the misuse of its capabilities during the summer of 2020, gives a lot of people on the Hill pause [when it comes to] potentially giving them new authorities, capabilities or resources,” a Senate aide told CNN.
It seems that the January 6 Capitol riot prompted this effort.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Still Illegal
This looks like an effort to convince us that they aren’t already doing it. They are.
Always been that way.
Whether it was booksellers keeping tabs on what books you’ve purchased or Facebook, Gmail, and other sites snooping your mail and contacts.
People shrug their shoulders when corporations do this to them but scream bloody murder when the government requests some of that information. Think back to the Clinton impeachment and people upset that Monica Lewinsky’s book purchases were being examined. That data shouldn’t exist in the first place.
When are you Republicucks going to bring articles of impeachment? You Aholes!
>>Still Illegal
Like Mrs. Clinton’s illegal possession of 900 FBI files?
Why don’t they spy on the groups sending minors here?
On the other hand, maybe they are funding these groups.
Why would they? “Private corporations can do whatever they like! If you don’t like it, build your own internet!”
That has been the official GOP position for years.
If you were wondering how they’d track down gun owners......
I know. That and many other reasons I can’t support them. We’re on our own.
It also sets the precedent for the federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to create more false flag operations in order to justify further invasion of US citizens’ civil rights. The Democrats have declare war on our freedoms and have made it clear they are all in.
All that needs to be done is buy the data the social media giants collect. Actually that’s not neceessry, they just need to buy the analysis from the social\search media giants like Google. These companies are far far ahead of the USG in data mining & deep learning.
The truth is you are already being collected against & analyzed commercially in a huge huge way for commecial\marketing reasons.
We are surely being monitored. I estimate about four full-time federal government agents at an average salary of over $100,000 each are assigned to freerepublic ‘duty’.
There is a preview feature here on freerepublic. Use it.
It sure is, anything these third parties uncover and pass to the government will be inadmissible in court.
They would be acting as an agent for the government and thus subject to the same collection requirements and restrictions.
“data mining & deep learning”
I’ve been researching off-grid solar systems. I’ve learned that home solar is more suited to a small house in rural China than for even a modest Cape Cod house in the USA.
I see lots of related ads on web pages.
If it’s illegal for the government to snoop directly, it’s illegal for the government to pay someone to snoop. This is elementary and should be clear even to a journalist.
Problem is, the government is already doing it.
“If you were wondering how they’d track down gun owners......”
I saw a picture on a web page of a government agent walking through a room in as I remember West Virginia filled with gun acquisition records yesterday. The article indicated that our new government wanted a digitalization of such records.
Ever read a user agreement for all of those "free" services?
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