BS: Don't Say THAT!!

Subject: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 11:35 PM

Rosa Golijan – Technolog 28 Feb 2012

Have you ever wondered if the government — or more specifically, the Department of Homeland Security — is monitoring your Twitter or Facebook posts? If the answer's "yes," give yourself a pat on the back because you're right and not simply paranoid. There's even a list of keywords for which subcontractors hired by the DHS check social networks.

Joel Johnson of Animal was among the first to notice that the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) obtained internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents which explain the "items of interest" (IOI) for which the agency monitors social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Technically this monitoring is not done by the DHS, but subcontractors who are specifically hired to "monitor social networks–use to generate real-time IOI reports," of course. Internal policies demand that those reports are stripped of most personally identifiable information (PII), though there are plenty of exceptions such as status updates or tweets involving "potential life or death circumstances" or public statements by U.S. or foreign government officials.

So what sort of words and phrases are the DHS subcontractors looking for while monitoring social media sites?

They're looking for mentions of words and phrases related to government agencies ("Department of Homeland Security," "Homeland Defense," "agent," "task force," air marshal"), domestic security ("assassination," "attack," "cops," dirty bomb," "shooting"), hazardous materials ("hazmat," "nuclear," "chemical spill," "leak") and health concerns ("flu," "ebola," "contamination," "virus," "small pox").

Also on the list of IOI are terms related to infrastructure security ("airport," "subway," "critial infrastructure," "transportation security"), Southwest border violence ("drug cartel," "drug," "gang," "decapitated"), terrorism ("Pakistan," "target," "weapons grade," "biological weapon," "Taliban," "suicide attack"), emergency situations ("hurricane," "extreme weather," "brush fire," "power outage," "blizzard"), and cyber security ("malware," "virus," "trojan," "phreaking," scammers").

The words listed above are just some of the IOI-related keywords listed in the documents obtained by EPIC. You can check out the full list on Animal, where Joel Johnson has compiled all the relevant terms.

Just try to avoid laughing when you notice that yes, "the Department of Homeland Security is searching social media for … "social media.""

Full List

*****

I think we can probably come up with our own list of words that we would find much more more suspicious and threatening.

Any suggestions?

John

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 12:04 AM

They are probably having lots of fun monitoring this place :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: GUEST,Paranoid Pete
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 12:08 AM

Custard
Jelly
Trifle
Marzipan
Gobstoppers
Dribble
Frotting
Whoopee
Vajazzle


I'd like to see the kind of 'terrorist' these words lead them to arresting !!!???

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 03:50 AM

It just occured to me that I mentioned "chitlins" in another thread where somebody else did an exposition on marmite.

Should we warn Max we may be in trouble?

(marmite is a WMD, isn't it?)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: Beer
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 07:39 AM

Love your handle Guest...."Paranoid Pete".
adrien

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: bobad
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 08:05 AM

Folksinger

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 08:28 AM

Lots of luck... I mean, those mindless conversations go so fast I don't know how anyone actually reads them... My d-i-l is into that stuff and tried to sell/interest me in them so I sat there for about 2 minutes just watching a little screen with people saying absolutely nothing of value to one another about nothing and finally had to just tell her, "Bo thanks"... Now can you imagine millions of these mindless conversations about nothing going on all at the same time???

They could pay me enough to sit and read this free association drivel...

Guess some folks like it but not for me, thanks...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: GUEST,Paranoid Pete
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 09:31 AM

The most telling key component of the cynical corporate brand name "Twitter"

is the word witter



"witter [ˈwɪtə] Informal
vb
(intr, often foll by on) to chatter or babble pointlessly or at unnecessary length
n
pointless chat; chatter"

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 09:59 AM

Banjo
Accordion
Bagpipes

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: GUEST,oldddude
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 10:44 AM

I would add Jell-O to the list

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 11:01 AM

I don't see wanker in the list, so the people monitoring are safe!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 11:05 AM

Anyone else watch the BBC show, MI-5 aka Spooks? If even half of what they show is true/possible, this doesn't surprise me at all. I wonder if they try to vet the tweets by ethnic background? Wankers should be on the list!

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: GUEST,Paranoid Pete
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 01:03 PM

I'd guess the internet media security alert vetting software works something like this -


for example:

"Celebrated left field revolutionary Bagpiper's latest experimental celtic folk jazz drum'n'bass CD bombs.
Philistine music press critic's vitriolic attacks and negative reviews blamed
for failure to interest intended target audience.
Hamish McQueen announces imminent London Alexandra Palace concert will still go ahead;
despite "devastating sales returns and chaos in his private life with fiancée ex model Felia Balls
constantly in and out of rehab and easy prey to the dirty tricks of ever present predatory paparazzi"
revealed a close friend of the celebrity couple.
But Hamish confirmed next planned Celtic Industrial Metal Mariachi fusion CD is now on hold
while many specialist record labels are becoming wide-spread casualties
of the toxic fall out of deepening global economic recession.".....

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: Bert
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 01:10 PM

Not Gobstoppers! Runs away screaming.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: gnu
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 01:13 PM

Say WHAT?

I wonder if the really spend $$$ monitoring twits.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 01:27 PM

One twit monitoring another. Interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: olddude
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 02:29 PM

How about some of spaw's favorite sayings .. Pissant or fuckweed

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Mar 12 - 01:14 PM

I'm glad to hear that somebody is on the watch for killers. That's what I pay taxes for. When some crack-brained fool posts that he's going to shoot up his school, I want somebody intercept him and then find out what the hell's wrong with him.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Mar 12 - 02:20 PM

Do you worry about that on a daily basis, leeneia? If so, you might consider a career working for some government surveillance outfit and keeping the rest of us "safe". ;-)

I pay taxes for law enforcement, roads and transportation facilities, courts & jails, schools, libaries, nature preserves, public health insurance, harbours, libraries, parks, nature preserves, an armed forces, a government, etc...

I don't object in principle to paying such taxes, but I do suspect that my tax burden is considerably higher than it ought to be in an honest system...because unscrupulous banking practices (fractional reserve lending) have put the country and society deeply into debt, and I'm paying for that too...but I didn't cause it. That is not unjust. I and all other citizens are being made to pay for the excesses and fraudulent activities of a few rich criminals at the top of the financial pyramid.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Mar 12 - 03:34 PM

The 2nd to last sentence in the above post should read: "That is unjust."

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Mar 12 - 04:57 PM

auto-correct prompts school lockdown

By Helen A.S. Popkin

Nervous police and school officials locked down two adjacent Georgia schools for two hours Wednesday after hearing a report about a text message that seemed to warn of a gunman present on campus, reports the Gainesville Times.

What appeared to be a threat to West Hall middle and high schools in Gainesville, however, turned out to be an errant auto-corrected text sent to a wrong number, the police discovered. The text, which police traced to a student, read "gunman be at west hall today," instead of the intended "gunna be at west hall today." Further, the community member who reported what seemed to be a threatening text was not the intended recipient.

AND:

'Laeping to Literacy Night'

By Brian Hamacher, NBCMiami.com

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- This leap fell a bit short.

A St. Petersburg high school sign promoting a recent literacy event for parents apparently wasn't spell-checked, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The sign outside Lakewood High School ... read "Laeping to Literacy Night 6:30 PM" in big black letters, but the blunder had school officials red in the face.

"This was just an accident. It's every principal's fear," Lakewood principal Robert Vicari told the Times. "I sure hope that sign doesn't end up on Jay Leno."

...

By the time it was fixed Monday, the sign was making the rounds on students' Facebook pages. Schley [the school's Literacy Coach] said if nothing else, she was happy the students had noticed the mistake.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Don't Say THAT!!
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 02 Mar 12 - 10:49 AM

Listening at walls, peering in windows, monitoring mail... this is just next step in government surveillance. Now if you want to get really paranoid try this speech jamming gun on for fun. The thing feeds back speech causing a breakdown in your ability to continue talking.