Exclusive: U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets

Exclusive: U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets

www.wired.com

America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.

In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated ever

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 19/10/2009 by Mirthful Me]

this is really going too far,makes you feel paranoid as your typing knowing everything you post is going to be probably seen by the c.i.a.does this make you feel intimidated,i know a lot of people say, i don't care if they see my messages and such, I've got nothing to hide,but you might show a different point of view in your posts,that they mightn't agree with,and in the future ,compiled together, might cause you a bit of trouble,do you think this scenario could be possible.

www.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 19/10/2009 by Mirthful Me]

GUESS WHAT . The prison system is primed for growth over the next few years...more and more disgruntled workers will be posting on blogs ...twitting and ATS and there will be "anti gov't" speech ....or "hate speech" blah blah ........

The gov't will save money on food stamps ...unemployment benny's ...social security ...medicare etc...the more PEOPLE THEY CAN LOCK UP.....in a great depression of today.....more people will be jailed it will just save the gov't alot of money......say i was a immoral CIA or NSA employee this is what i would be pushing for

wether it takes a swine flu scare or fear mongering from a domestic terrorist (trumped up or created event) b.c the gov't would need to get the sheeple behind this sort of assault on rights thru scare tactics

GUESS WHAT . The prison system is primed for growth over the next few years...more and more disgruntled workers will be posting on blogs ...twitting and ATS and there will be "anti gov't" speech ....or "hate speech" blah blah ........

The gov't will save money on food stamps ...unemployment benny's ...social security ...medicare etc...the more PEOPLE THEY CAN LOCK UP.....in a great depression of today.....more people will be jailed it will just save the gov't alot of money......say i was a immoral CIA or NSA employee this is what i would be pushing for

wether it takes a swine flu scare or fear mongering from a domestic terrorist (trumped up or created event) b.c the gov't would need to get the sheeple behind this sort of assault on rights thru scare tactics

GUESS WHAT . The prison system is primed for growth over the next few years...more and more disgruntled workers will be posting on blogs ...twitting and ATS and there will be "anti gov't" speech ....or "hate speech" blah blah ........

The gov't will save money on food stamps ...unemployment benny's ...social security ...medicare etc...the more PEOPLE THEY CAN LOCK UP.....in a great depression of today.....more people will be jailed it will just save the gov't alot of money......say i was a immoral CIA or NSA employee this is what i would be pushing for

just brainstorming for a minute....wether it takes a swine flu scare or fear mongering from a domestic terrorist (trumped up or created event) b.c the gov't would need to get the sheeple behind this sort of assault on rights thru scare tactics

then the sheeple would be on the one hand scared to show their anger with the gov't and since they would not revolt (unless they were going hungry) and need to keep some peace of mind ...they would likely be willing to believe the anti gov't posters are potential domestic terrorists and should they have a event fresh in their mind (caused by a domestic terrorist) then this "plan" could actually work

[edit on 19-10-2009 by cpdaman]

Hell, we can only lie to ourselves for so long. In the beginning(the beginning of the blogger era of ones life)many people think that what they are doing, is going un-noticed, that nobody of any real importance is reading what you are saying. They feel as if it is a way to vent their frustrations without fear of being held accountable. They are half right.

One thing I was always told, never say or write down anything that you fear might be used against you later on in life. I have(and many others) have known for a long time that posts such as this one can and is monitored by authorities.

Do I care? NOPE. Not one bit. They can do whatever they want to spy on me, not like I am trying to keep anything "secret". IMO, its a BIG waste of tax payer dollars being used on crap like this.I doubt Osama is going to reveal to us all his intentions on a blog anyhow.

:::WAVES AT SPIES::: How ya Doing f******!?!?

If you let them these people scare you, you already lost.

Don't agree with it but can see the logic.
They've been monitoring sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc for ages anyway.
I guess buying the company that has the software to make it easier was a logical step for them.
I can see the point being reached though where dissenters will no longer blog but take their cause to the grassroots level, if it gets too dangerous to air their thoughts and opinions online.

That would make it more difficult for these Spies, as they will have to get off the backsides and actually physically work instead of reading and perusing blogs and websites.

Facebook is wholly owned by a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of the CIA. If it is not, the corporation that owns it funnels all info directly to the CIA or NSA.

ATT has a data gathering center that routes all of the US telephone system to the CIA or NSA.

Welcome to 2009, also known as 1984, in theoretical or time relevant terminology.

Oh by the way, HEY GOV KISS MY LILLY WHITE ASS or in other terms-

THE ENDISNIGHE

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power".

-Benito Mussolini

Sometimes history serves as the manual to the madness rather than the warning it should be.

If agencies are telling you now that they are buying a stake in a firm that

monitors blogs it means they have been doing it for a long time do not kid

yourself.


These agencies are years ahead of the private sector and your phone calls

can be monitored anytime anywhere by the military as well as spies being

contracted out by your government, specific government agencies and

private eye agencies.


You say they are not playing by the rules let me let you in on a little secret

there are no rules when it comes to spying even though you are lead to

believe differently. ^Y^


[edit on 19-10-2009 by amari]

Gilman Louie, former chief creative officer at Hasbro Toys, and former chief executive of Spectrum Holobyte, maker of the F-16 and Falcon flight simulator games. Hired by the CIA to found In-Q-Tel.

He's no longer there, In-Q-Tel went through a transition phase and eventually Michael Griffin took the helm. Later, Michael Griffin would go on to be the head of NASA.

Other interesting stuff that In-Q-Tel has been into:

~2003

Furthermore, conference attendance was down from past years and some people cancelled their plans to come. The biggest no-show was Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison, who was scheduled to deliver a speech Sunday evening. Ellison apparently had trouble starting his private jet and couldn't make the trip from the San Francisco Bay Area. Dyson assured the crowd that Ellison had intended to come, noting his security staff had already arrived.

Passions ran high during many panel discussions, with privacy a frequent point of contention. Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Gilman Louie of In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, both argued that the U.S. government's push to use commercial data mining technology to create "watch lists" was particularly troubling.

Data mining systems are designed to help businesses sift through large amounts of information to answer questions such as whether a person should be offered a credit card. The worst that could happen in this case is that a mistake results in a denial of credit. But a wrong conclusion drawn from a government data mining system could deny a person their constitutional rights, Doctorow argued.

Orig Link, may be old


~2004

In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture arm, has invested in roughly 30 companies since it launched in 1999 with the goal of finding and developing technology in the private sector which can also be used in the intelligence community.

Six of those companies -- Attensity, Inxight, Metric Stream, PiXlogic, Stratify and Tacit Knowledge Systems -- are based in the Bay Area (see chart) and focus on knowledge management and data mining.

Orig Link, may be old.

~2005

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency are beginning to invest in start-up companies, following U.S. intelligence agencies in using taxpayer money to spur development of high-technology products and services by U.S. entrepreneurs.

The investments go through a venture-capital firm called In-Q-Tel, established by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1999 to tap into Silicon Valley and other high-tech centers. In-Q-Tel has invested $130 million alongside private investors, backing more than 80 companies developing technologies such as real-time translation software and digital mapping.

Orig Link, may be old

~2005

Strategic Partnership with In-Q-Tel Plays Key Role in Introducing Cutting-Edge Search Technologies to the U.S. Intelligence Community

[ClickPress, Tue Sep 13 2005] London UK September 13, 2005 - Endeca, the leading provider of Guided Navigation®, Search and Analysis solutions announced today it has signed a deal with In-Q-Tel to introduce Endeca's next-generation enterprise search and navigation technology to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

The deal is the latest with In-Q-Tel, a private, independent, not-for-profit venture group established by the Central Intelligence Agency. The search and navigation solution is part of Endeca's recently announced Government Search and Analysis Solutions.

[edit on 20-10-2009 by RoofMonkey]

So who are the CIA really watching terorrists,pedifiles or someone else.Seems like there on edge about something.

That's the $64 question. The "Total Information Awareness" project got axed... but all the pieces had been developed... and most were "COTS" - Commercial Off The Shelf systems. Just piece them together and voila. They even tried to resurrect it under the "Terrorist Information Awareness" moniker... but I don't remember how that turned out.

You pour the data links, relationships, phone records, travel history, credit card usage, or whatever you like into the databases and you start looking for correlations. Correlations of anything you want to look for.

A lot of work has been done in temporal analysis... but I don't have as good a reference set on that. It's essentially looking for time relationships in the information.

Edit Add (Sorry, I didn't feel like making another post so I added this... I used to collect articles on them so I have a few...)

CallMiner Inc., a leading provider of speech analytics software designed to search and uncover trends from recorded calls, today announced the immediate availability of TrendMiner 5.0, the fastest and most feature rich speech analytics tool available. The web-based call mining application uses integrated patent pending speech analytics technology, enabling call centers to search recorded calls, uncover trends and find valuable business intelligence. Now, call centers can turn audio into minable information at 16 times real-time, and retrieve a phrase from that database at over 11 million times real-time playback.

...

The CallMiner application suite enables analysis of 100% of call center recordings without the need to manually listen to calls, effectively eliminating a roadblock to obtaining potentially valuable information.

...

Since CallMiner's tools are easy to use, managers in marketing, sales, customer service and other organizations can now analyze mission critical information contained in recorded calls in real-time. Leading institutional investors including Inflexion Partners, Intersouth Partners, Village Ventures, and In-Q-Tel

[edit on 20-10-2009 by RoofMonkey]

U.S. sponsors plan to restrict free speech

A proposal sponsored by the Obama administration at the United Nations that purports to seek protection for "freedom of opinion and expression" actually is a call for a worldwide crackdown on freedom of speech and a mandate for nations to ensure "that relevant national legislation complies with … international human rights obligations" – a clear threat to the First Amendment, according to critics.

www.wnd.com...

You might find this article an eye opener.

They want to make what people say criminal. By monitoring every aspect of world communications, your phones and internet connections, this allows them to build a case against you and whatever they deem as "hate speech" or a "thought crime", using whatever you say in your phone or type on your phone or computer will be used as evidence against you.

Even if it is comments made to your own friends and family.

Originally posted by endisnighe
Facebook is wholly owned by a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of the CIA. If it is not, the corporation that owns it funnels all info directly to the CIA or NSA.

It's not, Facebook is still belongs to this guy.

Facebook dude

It does not matter anymore. With "Project Echelon" just across the Canadian Border catching faxes, emails, texting from cell phones and so on, this is just another cherry on top of an already overloaded government sundae.

Sooner or later, its bound to melt and topple over, leaving all the yummies exposed.

I cannot wait !!!!

Social media monitoring tools like Visible Technologies and Radian6 make it easy to track any online presence. You can easily gather a great deal of information about any group or person with these tools. Social media is growing each day and as more people are willing and open to put their personal information out there for everyone to see you dont have to be a government agency to pull it all together. I would imagine this very topic is getting flagged by the above mentioned companies if not just to see what it is people are saying about them.

From search engine optimization to on-line reputation management - it's just as much about social engineering and meme control as it is about data mining. They go hand in hand.

Information is power whether you collect it, filter it or disseminate it.

Additionally, synthetic models can be run based on the data and information in an effort to anticipate all possible outcomes for any given scenario.

The social networking data allows for more specific insight into human behavior, relationships and networking so that the synthetic environments can be more exact and less likely to produce an incorrect endgame assessment.

Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation

Furthermore, NSA whistle-blower Russell Tice alleges that the technology exists and is being used to collect data seamlessly and efficiently. Last week there was an article noting that AT&T and other tel-com companies are in fact, an extension of law enforcement in certain circumstances. It's not hard to connect those dots.



[edit on 20/10/2009 by kosmicjack]

If you read your email provider contract, you will see you do not own the rights to your email. I imagine its the same for tweets and blogs.

In 2000 a friend of my helped install a 1,000 parallel processor computer at the NSA that scanned every phone call and email in the United States. Among numerous sorting parameters, it not only did key word searches but looked for patterns of vernacular, misspellings, location of sender and recipient and key board errors to identify users no matter what alias they used.

That was 9 years ago when consumer computers were just coming out with dual processors. Imagine the capability today? There is a file with the name and address of every ATS user and you are on it.

A link for Visible Technologies mentioned above and a little of what they do:

Online Reputations Matter
•93% of people never go beyond the first page of search engine results

•91% of online consumers use search engines as their primary source of research and information

•87% of people believe a CEO's reputation reflects the company's reputation

•90% of consumers trust reviews and recommendations of other consumers

•58% of searchers will visit a competing Web site after seeing negative search results

•78% of executive recruiters search on candidates' names

•35% of executive recruiters have rejected candidates because of search results

truREPUTATION provides discreet and effective search result management solutions that promotes more favorable, accurate, and unbiased information into the top 20 search result positions across major U.S. search engines (Google, Yahoo!, AOL Search, and Bing).

Through its "monitor/optimize/manage" methodology, truREPUTATION helps you to shape and deliver your message where people search for your brand and/or name.

Where it says Brand and/or Name above you may as well just insert Political Party, policy and/or agenda. Social media in monitored in order to get out ahead of the zeitgeist and control potential problems (negative perceptions) with counter information.


One method used to control perception is search engine optimization:

www.computerworld.com...

Online reputation management "is a space that's hot and is heating up further," says Jeff Zabin, an analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc. who recently co-authored a report on social media monitoring and analysis. Executives are waking up to how the Internet can be used as an early warning system to alert them if their company's brand names and reputations are at risk as a result of a product defect, a disgruntled customer's blog rant or some other looming crisis, says Zabin.

If the news is bad, SEO techniques can help level the playing field. Sophisticated algorithms and other techniques allow manufacturers, retailers and other types of businesses to suppress unfavorable blog posts about their companies, and learn things about consumer preferences and perceptions of their brands like never before.

"I think it's going to change how marketing and research is being done," says Mike Waite, vice president of panels and communities at market research firm MarketTools Inc. The company has partnered with Umbria Inc., a marketing intelligence company that specializes in monitoring social media, to analyze online consumer chatter about MarketTools' clients. "People are just beginning to discover how this kind of data can be applied."

Social media is so incredibly powerful because it capitalizes on individual preferences and expression, an essential tool for Marketing

"WWIII will be a guerrilla information war, with no division between military and civilian participation."

Marshall McLuhan

[edit on 20/10/2009 by kosmicjack]