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Obama White House Has Secret Plan To Harvest Personal Data From Social Networking Websites



Sep 2, 2009 24 Comments ›› Erik Wong

facebook

NLPC:

by Ken Boehm

NLPC has uncovered a plan by the White House New Media operation to hire a technology vendor to conduct a massive, secret effort to harvest personal information on millions of Americans from social networking websites.

The information to be captured includes comments, tag lines, emails, audio, and video. The targeted sites include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and others – any space where the White House “maintains a presence.”

In the course of investigating procurement by the White House New Media office, NLPC discovered a 51-page solicitation of bids that was filed on Friday, August 21, 2009. Filed as Solicitation # WHO-S-09-0003, it is posted at FedBizzOps.com. Click here to download a 51-page pdf of the solicitation.

While the solicitation specifies a 12-month contract, it allows for seven one-year extensions. It specifies no dollar cap. Other troubling issues include:

extremely broad secrecy terms preventing the vendor from disclosing to the public or the media what information is being captured and archived (page 7, “Restriction Against Disclosure”)

wholesale capturing of comments by non-White House staff on publicly accessible sites

capturing of content of any type (text, graphics, audio, or video)

capturing of comments by both Obama critics and supporters, with no restriction as to how the White House would use the information.

This is the third controversy involving the White House internet operations in less than a month. First, Obama’s New Media operation asked supporters to send information about critics of the White House health care effort to a White House email. This provoked a storm of criticism and the White House retreated. Then large number of people complained of getting email spam from the White House supporting the President’s health care position. Again the White House was forced to back down.

Now the same people at the White House are at it again with an ambitious plan to harvest huge amounts of information from the web and specifically social networking sites.

Given the White House’s recent abuse of its New Media operations, this huge, new secretive program is yet another sign that this Administration is at best indifferent to privacy rights and at worst prepared to violate civil liberties for political purposes.

Perhaps anticipating negative reaction to the invasiveness of the plan, a justification is provided in a Q&A. section of the solicitation. Question #9 reads:

The Presidential Records Act does not require the storage or archiving of non-EOP content, as such is there a specific reason as to why the content provided on EOP related websites in the form of comments is included in these archiving procedures?

Answer: The PRA includes in its definition of presidential records content ―received by PRA components and personnel. Out of an abundance of caution, we are treating comments made by non-PRA personnel on sites on which a PRA component has a presence as presidential records, requiring them to be captured or sampled.

Of course, this interpretation of the Presidential Records Act is so expansive that virtually any communication mentioning the president or the Administration could become subject to collection and archiving under the Act. This is not out of an “abundance of caution,” but out of an over-abundance of power. President Obama should make sure that this plan goes no further.


  • brotherscoobs

    1984

    • cold soldier

      The solution for “1984″ is “1861″…move south :wink:

  • USNA1985

    I’ll sue for privacy violations and anything else that applies.

    • Desert Rat

      Fine and dandy, but how are ya gonna know IF they’ve harvested your comments and WHAT comments they might have stored? They aren’t talking and you won’t know… :gun:

    • FLINT89

      But privacy is only for liberals….same with free speech

    • http://www.accdf.com aboutTObegin

      when they turn around and use it on you….thats how…

      -aTb

    • Desert Rat

      They don’t have to actually “use” your personal data. You just become a ‘target’. Remember Craig Livingstone giving the Clinton White House the 700 or so raw data files from background investigations? Folks were then targeted for IRS audits. Some info wound up in hands of Democrap opposition researchers. On and on… They can easily disguise the reasons, means and methods for what they choose to do.

      You’d probably never know what or why…

    • http://www.accdf.com aboutTObegin

      yeah…just as they did with the Chrysler dealership closings……they closed the profitable ones that supported the GOP….good point

      -aTb

  • New Texan

    url is incorrect: fbo.gov or fedbizopps.gov

  • JCD

    All they’re going to find is endless nonsense from a bunch of adults acting like they’re in high school still:
    “My current mood is: flirty”

  • GRIZZ

    my brother told me he was going to stomp my ass if I didnt stop using his picture for my avatar

    • Buzz Bannister

      HA! That’s why I use the picture of my long dead Uncle.

  • http://n/a rightside

    This why I dropped my facebook account for this reason. I angered some friends of mine for doing this.

  • Kirk

    “a 12-month contract, it allows for seven one-year extensions”

    Why does it sound like they know in advance, their going to be there for the full 8-years? :shock:

    • MinneSoCold

      I think that’s normal for contracts on their part to secure the bid with the assumption of a full timeframe. If they had made it a “7-year contract”, then I would worry.

      This is mining of public information which tons of companies do. Most use the information for broad demographic profiles for marketing. What is disturbing is it’s the government doing this, specifically the executive branch which has shown they will use such for political means. The government works with individual information, they police and enforce based on individual information.

      One can’t help but question the motives of this. Collecting data, images and links to others can only be for one purpose, power over the individual. We’ve seen this exact thing in history, we know where it eventually lead. Do we really want to repeat that history yet again?

  • Independent

    This has been going on for a very long time.

    However with the Obuma Dictatorship in full swing it will be incredible the level of listening and watching

    The denouncing of fellow Americnas for being an “enemy of the Obuma State” will skyrocket in the next 3 years.

    Watch yourself and your surroundings at all times. You never know who is one of these animals.

    But one must still speak up for our Forefathers and for our Children.

    Otherwise without the Constitution the Country is simply gone vanished.

    No retreat on the Bill of Rights for one millimeter. No surrender.

  • Nikki

    This third outrage in less than a month reminds me of the process which terrorist organizations and their supporters go through when someone tries to bring a suit against them. That is to say, they lay low, change names (or some aspect of their appearance), and try again. Only in this case the appearance hasn’t been changed. They just lay low for a few days while hoping the Right gets distracted by something else and then they try it again … libturds …

  • copperpeony

    Besides collecting Facebook info, they are doing the same with Twitter. Thats why I stopped using both.

    On top of that, they are harvesting all your cell phone conversations. ATT has atleast 30 huge monitoring stations all over the country doing this invasion of privacy. I had the site saved somewhere and if i find it, I’ll post it.

  • angela

    I had both Facebook and classmate accounts but canceled my accounts today. The government is getting too nosy about what people are doing . Our rights as citizens are almost extinct. The citizens of this country need to band together stronger . This is not over by a long shot.

  • fingerpointer

    I’m not surprised.

  • Sully

    Barry’s effort to combat the insurgency against His reign.
    Watch… no bid award to Google.

  • J.S. TX

    I don’t plan on canceling anything. I have myspace, classmates, facebook and twitter. They can be watching this site too. ( I’m sure they are.) If they want me, come and get me. Although they won’t be getting much. Just some harmless old lady that goes to tea parties and secession rallies. :lol:

  • http://accdf.com toldyouso

    Save you the trouble. FUCK YOU!

  • ignifer

    This info will be retroactively used when certain aspects of free speech become hate speech in some future date.
    Watch also for the info to be used for leverage against individuals deemed to loud ,bothersome, or obfuscatory to the advancement of the fascist agenda.