The Mexican newspaper El Milenio uncovers systemic monitoring plans of public online sources,

Two weeks ago, the Mexican newspaper El Milenio reported on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPC) initiative to monitor social media sites, blogs, and forums throughout the world. The document, obtained by El Milenio through a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request, discloses how OPC’s National Operations Center (NOC) plans to initiate systematic monitoring of publicly available online data including “information posted by individual account users” on social media.

This newly discovered initiative is part of a broader trend of monitoring and using online information in various investigative contexts. What should users both inside and outside the US learn from these discoveries? As always Internet users should certainly think carefully before posting information about themselves on public sites and remember that privacy policies are constantly subject to change. Not only do we know that the government is watching, we have some clues as to how it is doing it.

Links:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/08/mexican-newspaper-uncovers-systemic-monitoring