Feds keep eye on social media sites

Federal law agents are snooping into social media sites, according to a document retrieved through the Freedom of Information Act by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and posted online March 16.

A 33-page Justice Department partially-redacted presentation prepared by the agency's computer crime and intellectual property section encourages agents to "research all witnesses on social-networking sites" and discusses undertaking undercover operations to communicate with suspects and gain access to non-public information.

The presentation notes that Facebook is "often cooperative with emergency requests" but notes that Twitter has a short data retention policy and will not preserve data without legal process.

LinkedIn's "use for criminal communications appears limited," the presentation says, and "profile information is not checked for reliability," it adds. The presentation also notes that MySpace was surpassed in popularity by Facebook in 2008.

The presentation leaves open the question whether violating a site's term of service--such as not using a real identity, if required--could in itself be unauthorized access under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The presentation's authors say they're concerned that such an interpretation would transform terms of service agreements "into private criminal code for site misconduct."

The presentation also questions whether social media is covered under the Privacy Protection Act, or whether a Facebook or Twitter post is a similar form of communication to a newspaper or broadcast. "No easy answers, but look to intent to communicate news to sizable audience," the presentation states.

The San Francisco-based Internet watchdog also posted online an Internal Revenue Service manual on social media. The IRS warns employees that they "may not use either their correct identification information or false identification information to become 'friends' to gain access to the taxpayer's social network site."

For more:
- see the Electronic Frontier Foundation release
- click directly to the DOJ presentation (.pdf) and the IRS manual (.pdf)
- read this Associated Press article

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