Twitter blocks government 'spy centers' from accessing user data:
Twitter has blocked federally funded "domestic spy centers" from using a powerful social media monitoring tool after public records revealed that the government had special access to users' information for controversial surveillance efforts.
The government centers are partnerships between agencies that work to collect vast amounts of information purportedly to analyze "threats". The spy centers, according to the ACLU, target protesters, journalists and others protected by free speech rights while also racially profiling people deemed "suspicious" by law enforcement.
In one email, Dataminr told Los Angeles police that its product could be customized to track protests, adding: "Twitter owns part of Dataminr (5%) so our access to their data is unmatched – no other company ingests the full firehouse of 500 million tweets in real-time ... Twitter has been very clear with my CEO: 'Dataminr is the only company with full, unrestricted access.'"
"Dataminr is committed to privacy and civil liberties protections," the company said in a statement. "We have worked closely with Twitter to modify our product and incorporate feedback that ensures the strongest safeguards are in place for people who use Twitter."
Also at aclunc.org and The Verge.
This all sounds very familiar...
Previously: Twitter Cuts Off U.S. Spy Agency Access to Search Tool
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @07:12PM
> And yet, everyone continues using those services.
You work with the tools you have, not the tools you wish you had.
As soon as you provide an alternative that isn't subject to the same risks, I'm sure people will be all over it.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday December 17 2016, @07:35PM
Are you sure? [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @03:19PM
Security on the surface web is destroyed, due to not only technological problems (e.g. Heartbleed's currently-unknown siblings), but also to government agents with gag orders and National Security Letters.
The only fix seems to be to create a new Internet making use of technologies that thwart government intervention, such as GNUnet. (I2P, freenet, and Tor look good at first glance, but there are serious problems underlying all of them, from gov control of Tor exit nodes to the others being built on the now-abandoned Java language.)