An Obama Plan to Harvest Personal Data from Social Media

As if there wasn’t enough controversy over the solicitation of snitches via the Flag@whitehouse.gov email address, it seems the Obama Administration has another scheme in the works. This one will harvest personal information from social media sites like Facebook. Oh, and you can’t know what they find:

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 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 a serious “whiskey tango foxtrot” issue. As I said with the snitchmail, how very 1930s Germany.

And isn’t this supposed to be the most transparent administration in the history of transparency?

Doug Ross nails it when he writes, “Obama makes Nixon look like a rank amateur.”

Hat tip: Memeorandum

chuckjer

Ah yes. I can smell the aroma of fascism in the air.
chuckjer

Ah yes. I can smell the aroma of fascism in the air.
44Grim

well, i’m screwed. ;)
44Grim

well, i’m screwed. ;)
http://uncooperativeblogger.blogspot.com Brian Bonner

Comrade Obama, as Chavez refers to him, is making all the same moves as Adolf Hitler. I remember the hysterics from the Left when G.W. Bush was President and he was extremely mild in comparison, where is the cry of fascism and Nazi now? Oh, right, they like his agenda, so the ends justify the means; same old, same old.
.-= Brian Bonner´s last blog ..James Madison on Power and Government =-.
http://uncooperativeblogger.blogspot.com Brian Bonner

Comrade Obama, as Chavez refers to him, is making all the same moves as Adolf Hitler. I remember the hysterics from the Left when G.W. Bush was President and he was extremely mild in comparison, where is the cry of fascism and Nazi now? Oh, right, they like his agenda, so the ends justify the means; same old, same old.
.-= Brian Bonner´s last blog ..James Madison on Power and Government =-.
44Grim

I would honestly like to see a comparison of what Hitler is doing to what Obama’s done so far… especially before I join that crowd in the arena. not because i’m necessarily skeptical, but because people will call the person who does it “hate monger” “racist” and other crap. I’d be glad to be the one to write it. it’d take time, though
44Grim

I would honestly like to see a comparison of what Hitler is doing to what Obama’s done so far… especially before I join that crowd in the arena. not because i’m necessarily skeptical, but because people will call the person who does it “hate monger” “racist” and other crap. I’d be glad to be the one to write it. it’d take time, though