FBI Looking for a Good Facebook-Snooping App
By Damon Poeter
January 26, 2012 04:58pm EST
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399425,00.asp
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a better way to spy on Facebook and Twitter users. That's pretty much the gist of a new FedBizOpps.gov post from the FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC) soliciting proposals for an app capable of sniffing through online media sites and social networks.
The successful app will "have the ability to rapidly assemble critical open-source information and intelligence that will allow SIOC to quickly vet, identify, and geo-locate breaking events, incidents, and emerging threats," according to a detailed guide to just what is the FBI is looking for in its online snooping tool.
But app developers shouldn't expect to get paid if they answer the ad. For now, the FBI says it's just conducting market research into whether it's even possible to make the sort of data-sniffer the SIOC is looking for and if so, exactly how you'd craft it and what it would cost to develop.
The agency is setting the bar pretty high for the app's capabilities. It must be "infinitely flexible," according to the guidelines. And the desired application can never, ever, under any circumstances be gamed by those under surveillance, but rather has to have "the ability to adapt quickly to changing threats to maintain the strategic and tactical advantage" for its operators.
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