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posted by janrinok on Thursday October 13 2016, @05:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the trust-no-one dept.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have revoked access to their data to an analytics firm accused of selling information that allowed US police to track activists and protesters.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Chicago-based Geofeedia had allowed police to "sneak in through a side door" to monitor protests.

Geofeedia said it was committed to the principles of personal privacy.

It comes amid growing concern about government access to social media.

ACLU said Geofeedia had been marketing its services to police agencies to help track activists using location data and social media posts.

The group said it had seen internal documents in which Geofeedia said that it "covered Ferguson/Mike Brown nationally with great success," referring to protests which erupted in 2014 after an unarmed African-American man was shot dead by police.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13 2016, @05:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13 2016, @05:13PM (#413975)

    This is clearly against the principle of the first amendment. Saying "you have free speech, but if you say something that the government doesn't like, it's going to track you" will stifle dissent and gut the protections of first amendment. Hopefully this will end up in front of a judge with a lick of sense and it will be ruled correctly.

  • (Score: 2) by deathlyslow on Thursday October 13 2016, @05:17PM

    by deathlyslow (2818) <wmasmith@gmail.com> on Thursday October 13 2016, @05:17PM (#413978)

    I agree with that. Legal and right are two totally different things. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13 2016, @08:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13 2016, @08:01PM (#414057)

      I'm sorry but of course the government should investigate people who say things "the government does not like." If you start talking about killing people you need to be looked at. The question, as in all human endeavors, is the judgment of what qualifies as deserving of investigation. Its one of the reasons the racists are so desperate to portray BLM as a violent movement, just like they tried to make the civil rights protests in the 60s appear to be violent.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13 2016, @08:27PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13 2016, @08:27PM (#414070)

        If you start talking about killing people you need to be looked at.

        You only need to be looked at if what you said was actually illegal.