Cyberwire: FBI spends millions on social media tracking software.

FBI spends millions on social media tracking software.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has signed a $27 million contract for five thousand licenses to use social media tracking software Babel X. The software, developed by US tech firm Babel Street, is intended to aid the FBI in searching social media sites for indicators of possible threats of national security, and the contract calls for translation abilities in at least seven foreign languages, geofencing sentiment analysis to help “determine likely attitudes of the targets, and even emoji searches, “predictive analytics,” and bot detection. Jack Poulson, head of research advocacy group Tech Inquiry, told the Washington Post the contract is the largest Babel Street contract he’s encountered. The FBI stated, “The FBI uses social media tools to search publicly available information pertinent to predicated investigations in order to identify and respond to threats of violence, acts of terrorism, and potential federal violations within the scope of the FBI’s mission.”

Civil liberties advocates and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are concerned that such widespread social media tracking could be a threat to privacy. Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel and co-director at the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Security and Surveillance Project, says such sweeping searches could easily result in misinterpretation. “The risk of misinterpretation is high. So is the risk that an FBI agent who misinterpreted what you said on social media will come knocking on your door,” he stated. Representative Jim Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee’s top Republican, has asked the FBI for a briefing to address “real concerns based on the [FBI’s] history and based on the fact that we don’t know how they’re using it and who they’re going after.”

Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate with Comparitech, stated:

“I can foresee several issues with the FBI monitoring social media. First, it will surely have a chilling effect on free speech. People behave differently when they know they’re being watched, leading to self-censorship. Second, this is bulk surveillance, which means the vast majority of people whom the FBI is monitoring are not suspected of any crime. Third, sentiment analysis is about as reliable as astrology. The odds of misinterpretation are very high. Fourth, it sets a dangerous precedent. Dictators in autocratic countries could contract with Babel X or a similar company to spy on dissidents, activists, journalists, and others who speak out. Last, it’s notable that the FBI is using a third-party vendor instead of working with the social networks themselves. This is probably because the social networks would never agree to let the FBI directly monitor their users, even though the FBI says it only wants public info. That could mean Babel X scrapes info from social networks using bots, a practice that Facebook and other social media have prohibited in their terms of service and actively fought against to little avail.”

Chris Hauk, consumer privacy champion at Pixel Privacy, commented:

“Unfortunately, the FBI and other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies will happily use “attacks” like the January 6th event to violate the privacy of American citizens. While the monitoring of social platforms can help law enforcement to plan for possible incidents, my fear is that it may eventually lead to a “Minority Report” type situation where the FBI and other agencies may arrest or otherwise detain citizens that haven’t actually violated any laws. I also don’t think we can count on the FBI to use the software only for its stated purpose. If there is a way to misuse a tool, you can rely on government agencies to do so.”

https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/privacy-briefing/4/66