DOJ Sued over Internet Sluthing Methods

DoJ sued for sleuthing practices on Facebook, TwitterDecember 5, 2009 — 9:28pm ET By Judi Hasson

The Department of Justice and five other governmental agencies were sued lastweek by a privacy watchdog group for using Facebook, Twitter and other socialnetworks to investigate citizens in criminal and other matters. The ElectronicFrontier Foundation wants to know exactly how the feds are using socialnetworking to gather information in investigations.The suit comes as Congress is considering legislation to increase protectionsfor consumers who use social networking sites. So far, the government is stayingmum how it is leveraging these new tools in investigations and what it iscollecting from the Internet.In addition to the Justice Department, the suit names other agencies, including:the Department of Defense, DHS, the CIA, the Department of Treasury and theOffice of the Director of National Intelligence."Although the Federal Government clearly uses social networking websites tocollect information, often for laudable reasons, it has not clarified the scopeof its use of social-networking websites or disclosed what restrictions andoversight is in place to prevent abuse," the lawsuit said.Law enforcement usually needs a warrant to collect information, but it's unclearwhere social networks stand in terms of the right to protect information that ispublicly available for everyone to see.For more on this lawsuit:- see this eWeek.com articleRelated Articles:FBI cannot handle load of electronic evidenceFBI: Hackers target social networksNSA uses Facebook, tooFederal agencies try TwitterGet Your FREE FierceGovernmentIT Email Newsletter:http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/doj-sued-sleuthing-practices-facebook-tw\itter/2009-12-05?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal