A Bi-Partisan Big Brother
- The Dems and the GOP have locked arms to fully fund 24 hour a day police spying on the Internet and our personal lives. It is an illusion that we have two political parties.
(Tri-City Herald, South Carolina) - Tri-City law enforcement agencies will soon have software that will allow them to track personal accounts on a number of social media websites.
Benton County Commissioners this week approved $20,000 to buy the SnapTrends software to help investigators keep track of posts on websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
The Kennewick, Richland and Pasco police departments, as well as the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, will use the software.
A nearly $70,000 federal grant obtained by Benton County Emergency Management helped pay for the social media intelligence software — the first of its kind in the Tri-Cities. Variations of the software are used nationwide.
The software gathers real-time and old posts from around the area and organizes the data for officials to review. They can track where a post came from and use keyword searches to follow conversations on several sites.
Investigators will be able to zero in on certain areas around Benton and Franklin counties and scour social media websites for information related to their investigations.
The software — which also tracks the video-sharing website Vine and the mobile app Foursquare — has a map function and the ability to translate more than 80 languages.
Authorities will use the software during potential disasters, major crime events, for emergency responses and for community outreach, they said.
Police told the Herald they don’t want to disclose too much information about the software to avoid giving criminals the upper hand. They say reviewing social media sites is routinely part of the investigative process and their hope is this will be another tool to track criminal behavior
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