Noted by Ars Technica: Homeland Security has been poking around Facebook, Twitter and MySpace looking for wrongdoing. The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) received this memo (PDF) outlining Homeland Security’s approach. Among the nice things your government has to say about you?
“Narcissistic tendencies in many people fuels a need to have a large group of ‘friends’ link to their pages and many of these people accept cyber-friends that they don’t even know… This social networking gives FDNS (Fraud Detection and National Security) an opportunity to reveal fraud by browsing to see if (site users) are in a valid relationship or are trying to deceive CIS (Citizen and Immigration Services) … In essence, using MySpace and other like sites is akin to doing an unannounced cyber “site-visit”…”
Notes the EFF:
“In other words, USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) is specifically instructing its agents to attempt to “friend” citizenship petitioners and their beneficiaries on social networks in the hope that these users will (perhaps inadvertently) allow agents to monitor their activities for evidence of suspected fraud, including evidence that their relationships might not live up to the USCIS’ standard of a legitimate marriage…. there’s nothing to prevent an exaggerated, harmless or even out-of-date off-hand comment in a status update from quickly becoming the subject of a full citizenship investigation.”
Shameful. I don’t know why I’m surprised by this. Maybe it’s because I didn’t think the government even knew about social networks. This is an important reminder to all – watch what you post. You never know when these humorless agencies will take one of your jokes seriously. Full credit to the EFF on this one.
