The FBI is constantly trying to find ways to identify and track criminals. As part of this effort, the agency wants to be able to gather more information from social media. For this reason, it is interested in finding a tool to monitor social platforms. Essentially, the FBI is interested in an “early warning tool” that will help monitor terrorist groups, domestic threats, criminal activity and more.
The tool would give the FBI access to people's full social media profiles. This means the agency could see information such as user IDs, emails, IP addresses and phone numbers. The tool would also allow the FBI to track criminals based on location, monitor what they type and access their social media history. Leveraging social media will allow the FBI to detect, investigate and respond to various threatsthat threaten US.
However, the use of such a tool may cause a backlash. Many may consider the FBI to be violating privacy . However, the agency claims that it will take care of the security of privacy and civil liberties.
Monitoring social media to identify and counter threats from terrorist and other criminal groups could be very helpful. In addition to the FBI, the CIA has already started working on its own social media monitoring tools. However, as good as this idea sounds, there is always the risk that the tool could be misused and people's privacy and freedoms could be violated.
