Image Source: Freedomsphoenix.com



BY ERIN DISMEIER
 

ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

Big Brother isn’t just watching you... he’s keeping an eye on your social media habits as well.


The CIA recently owned up to a Virginia-based Open Source Center that tracks and analyzes over five million tweets, blogs posts and content on other social media sites world wide everyday. MSNBC has more...


 

“The group is nicknamed the agency’s ‘vengeful librarians,’ and they watch for possible uprisings or instability around the world.  They also track information from rebels, militants or other activists or anything they might broadcast online.”



According to the article report, originally from the AP, the program will focus predominantly overseas. The Atlantic spoke to a professor who says the intelligence field has begun to use social media analysis is sentiment and mood analysis.  

Johan Bollen, professor of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University says that this process-- also known as meme-tracking-- is relatively new and may not be reliable.
 

“...the samples are huge--there are 750 million people on Facebook--but no matter how you look at it, it’s still possible the sample could be biased.  It requires someone to be on Facebook, to own a computer, to even USE Facebook...”

While some may be outraged by the existence of something like the Open Source Center, ITWorld reporter Kevin Fogarty said that social networking sites have never been private.
 

“Social networks, by definition, are public. What you say on them you may intend for a circle of your friends, but it's been years since anyone has believed a word said or a picture posted on either service would stay within a particular circle.”