RED ALERT: White House Has Secret Plan To Harvest Personal Data From Social Networking Websites

National Legal and Policy Center ^ | August 31, 2009 | Ken Boehm

[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.

[stephenjohnbanker]

We are saving this for the 10 Million Man March.

[Lucky9teen]

Solovki Prison Camp

[Boucheau]

I’ve been trying to tell you folks—these are real-deal power mongers.

While you are in an uproar about socialized medicine, which you should be, they are busy in the background setting the stage for your downfall.

Ignore my warnings at your peril.

The Police State Rising:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=108604

The big scare:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090902/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_swine_flu

Indoctrination: Our Dear Leader:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10582301/President-Obama’s-Address-to-Students-Across-America-September-8-2009

The HeadFake:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26672.html

[TheThinker]

Does the White House have a “presence” on Free Republic?

Of course they do.

I say that because it's not like FR isn't famous and successful as a political force.

[XenaLee]

"Kiss my big, white, rich, Christian, male, pro-gun, pro-life, government hating, tax hating, terrorist hating, greenhouse gas emitting, freedom loving hind parts.

If I leave out "rich" can I say "ditto?"

If I leave out "rich" and "big" and substitute "female" for "male", can I say ditto too?

[azishot]

The information to be captured includes comments, tag lines, emails, audio, and video.

They're going to go after someone's TAG LINE? In a different time I'd say this was childish. However, these are very dangerous 'children'.

[Jim Robinson]

Well, I’ll put it this way. If he gets them, it’ll be an impeachable offense. Other than that, we’ll know the time is here.

[DogBarkTree]

Thank you, sir. Im dropping out of Facebook. Not being able to post here would be tough indeed.

[Sprite518]

We could have a 100 Million man march and congress will still do what they want. The TARP is a prime example. I promise you Obama and the nuts in congress are going to shove this thing down are throat. You know they want more power.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Obama is failing, and his support with it. He is now vulnerable for the first time.

[Paul Ross]

Check out the official link to the bid, and read it for yourself:

http://www.nlpc.org/sites/default/files/RFQ_WHOS090003.pdf

[Paul Ross]

"Indeed they are, and can be identified by their ridicule of other Freepers they sneeringly refer to as 'birthers'. "

BTTT! You nailed it...

[GraceG]

Time to make a couple dozen more anti-obama profiles on facebook and myspace.

[TaxRelief]

It looks like they are only capturing discussion threads on the Facebook Whitehouse page.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Yeah ;-)

[Never on my watch]

“It looks like they are only capturing discussion threads on the Facebook Whitehouse page.”

Don’t trust them.

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.

[XenaLee]

Neutralize the conservative vote? You can’t lose what you no longer have. I don’t think the conservatives HAVE a “vote” in this new reality. ACORN and the commie left (ie the Daley thugocracy in charge of the voting dead) have seen to that...with a little help from the apathetic GOPers, the RINOs and all of the “in denial” conservatives.

We have allowed these leftists to go too far for far too long. We all knew where it was leading. Now that we’re here, can anyone on the right be truly surprised?

[CedarDave]

Scary stuff:

RED ALERT: White House Has Secret Plan To Harvest Personal Data From Social Networking Websites

[paulycy]

Check out the official link to the bid, and read it for yourself:

Thank you.

[CottonBall]

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.

OMG. Big Brother.