TransTracker 's Library tagged Twitter → View Popular

Filter:
All
Annotated

22 Aug 09

Air Force Used Twitter to Track NY Flyover Fallout

www.nytimes.com/...Pentagon-Twitter-Tracking.html - Preview

Twitter social media surveillance crowd mining Military air_force

As the Pentagon warns of the security risks posed by social networking sites, newly released government documents show the military also uses these Internet tools to monitor and react to coverage of high-profile events.

The Air Force tracked online messaging service Twitter, video-sharing site YouTube and various blogs to assess the huge public backlash to the Air Force One flyover of the Statue of Liberty this spring, according to the documents.
According to the Air Force One documents released through the Freedom of Information Act, a unit called the Combat Information Cell at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida monitored the public fallout from the April 27 flight and offered recommendations for dealing with the fast-breaking story.

Formed two years ago, the cell is made up of as many as nine people who analyze piles of data culled from the Internet and other sources to determine whether the Air Force's message is being heard.
2 more annotations...
- A Utah Air National Guard unit, the 101st Information Warfare Flight in Salt Lake City, was also monitoring the social sites. ''To say that this event is being beaten like a dead horse is an understatement,'' reads an April 28 e-mail from the unit to other Air Force offices. ''Has really taken off in Web 2.0.''
  
  Both the 101st and the Combat Information Cell are attached to the 1st Air Force, which is based at Tyndall and is in charge of guarding U.S. airspace.
- John Verdi of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington said gray zones can emerge while monitoring social networking sites because viewing and participating is based on trust.
  
  ''Lots of times individuals upload private or sensitive information that they expect to share with their friends or family and not the whole Internet world,'' Verdi said. ''It would certainly be a major problem if the government were accessing that information under false pretenses.''