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 ...
I take it this doesn’t include political forums like FR??
OMG! That grphc
According to the CNS article, the White House plans is to archive comments made on its own social sites (ie, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.). Hell, I didn’t know the White House had pages on these sites.
Amazing how Zero is doing everything that they accused Bush of doing on a daily basis.
Exactly...and yet not one peep from the MSM or GOP. We are truly living in WTF times?
From the CNS article: ‘The document also says, “The contractor shall include the information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence.”’
I see a huge loophole here to allow the contractor to gather data. For example: The White House has a FaceBook page, but the “publicly-accessible web site(s) where the EOP maintains a presence” is FACEBOOK. It seems to open the door for recording data from all over FaceBook.
Check post 177... they're going to crawl everything and anything...
Please tell us we dont have to worry about Obama thugs getting our IPs and donation records. I dont need to know the details, just FR’s word that measures are in place to protect our identities.
This is the downside of social networking sites. Posting any personal information on the internet is a bad idea. What if a “friend” on Facebook turned out to be a criminal? Who could use this information?
“Does the White House have a “presence” on Free Republic?”
Guaranteed. Several.
Nixon didn’t have to resign. They were going to impeach him and he resigned to save the country from being pulled apart by the differing stances in the Congress and in the public.
Amazing << Hear this. Feel this, and tell me that this isn't music.
Oh, dear...
A lot of celebs and MSM remind me of women who seem to crave abuse, but only from certain types of men. They want to be battered, but by Liberals.
Like dating the abusive scummy guy while accusing the decent guy of being oppressive and controlling.
Some are hearing you, but the majority are watching football.
Cool. He capitalizes “Right Wing Domestic Terrorists”.
Now that’s showing respect. [/s]
Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals .
Either that or they’ll be upside down.
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