Facebook is a fantastic tool for keeping in touch with friends and family, and Twitter lets users share all kinds of information with their followers. These giant social networks are also packed full of information that advertisers trip over themselves to take advantage of, but another group is looking to make use of the social sites and others. The U.S. Department of State issued a procurement request earlier this month seeking tools that can provide “deep analysis of topics, conversations, networks, and influencers of the global social web,” New Scientist reported. The government agency will accept bids from interested companies that can build such tools, and they will be used to monitor conversations in at least seven different languages in an effort to identify potential security threats. New Scientist notes that the military can already monitor sites like Facebook and Twitter with a Lockheed Martin-built tool called the Web Information Spread Data Operations Module, or WISDOM.
U.S. Government seeks spying tools for Facebook, Twitter
Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:27PM EST
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Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.
His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.
