General Social Media Information Archives

Visa Waiver Travel Program Adds Social Media Check

It looks like the government is starting to make use of social media content in a proactive manner. They have been quietly rolling out a new program for the visa waiver travelers to try to add a layer of screening prior to arriving in the US. If you’re not aware, those traveling using a visa waiver have the right to stay in the US for up to 90 days without needing a visa.

With this new program, travelers are being asked to provide their user names for any social sites they may use. They are not asking for passwords or access to any private information. This is optional and whether or not a person provides this information has no bearing on their acceptance to enter the country.

According to a recent news article, the ACLU and other advocacy groups are taking issue with this too, stating that it may be used against some in a specific demographic, such as Muslims, and will increase their chances of not being able to enter the country.

The ACLU opposes this, stating this serves as “gateways into an enormous amount of [users’] online expression and associations, which can reflect highly sensitive information about that person’s opinions, beliefs, identity and community.”

Similarly, Access Now, a group advocating for users’ digital rights, shared this sentiment: “The choice to hand over this information is technically voluntary,” he said. “But the process to enter the U.S. is confusing, and it’s likely that most visitors will fill out the card completely rather than risk additional questions from intimidating, uniformed officers — the same officers who will decide which of your jokes are funny and which ones make you a security risk.”

I tend to disagree. By asking travelers to provide this information, it will expedite the screening process. If this information isn’t easily available, the government may need to conduct social media research in another format, which could be more time consuming and likely expensive.

I believe this is a good measure, at least at a start, to try to use social media as a screening tool. Obviously people can lie, or not share all of their social site usage, or just not complete it at all, but my hope is that those who want to travel to the United States will comply with this new request. After all, if they have nothing to hide, it shouldn’t be a problem. Further, since the only content that can be obtained is public facing anyway, it is already visible to those who wish to find it.

This appears to be a simple start to trying to better screen people entering the country. It is simplistic though and somewhat basic, and will only minimally help, because those likely to comply with this are not the threats the government is looking for. However, it is a good start and is a program that can be fleshed out over time to better protect us.

Social Media Sites May Soon Have a Responsibility in Monitoring For Terrorist Chatter

With new information coming out every day about the terrorist attack in San Bernadino, it’s becoming more and more evident that privacy concerns related to social media will need to change.

Social media monitoring is useful for businesses, but also for law enforcement, Homeland Security, and other agencies whose goal is to keep US citizens safe. Current social media monitoring technology that is available to businesses, marketers, and the like is limited to public facing information, as it should be.

It has come to light in the wake of this tragedy that terrorists are able to fall under the radar in part with the use of apps and social programs that use encryption that cannot be collected. In fact, information was circulating across the news wires that, even if law enforcement approached an app developer to obtain information, they would be unable to do so.

While privacy is of everyone’s concern, this news is rather unsettling. It is a difficult situation for those app developers or who run social sites – it’s a cross between ensuring privacy for its users, but not allowing that privacy to protect citizens.

One thought that I read in a recent article offered a solution that might help in some small way. First, developers need to have a way to use encrypted content to provide to law enforcement in cases where there is chatter that may indicate a terrorist plot, making it as difficult as possible for those wishing to do harm an opportunity to “go dark.”

There is also a call for those in the social media industry to be responsible for reporting any unusual or suspicious content to law enforcement as another means. According to the article, “This bill doesn’t require companies to take any additional actions to discover terrorist activity, it merely requires them to report such activity to law enforcement when they come across it.”

In the case of the San Bernadino attack, Facebook did find an account for one of the terrorists, under an alias, that contained helpful information to investigators. While monitoring this and finding it prior to the attack may or may not have stopped what ultimately happened, it may have raised concern to look into further and potentially put these individuals on the radar.

As the terrorists get smarter and technology gets more intricate, privacy issues may have to take a step back, just a bit, for all of us to be as safe as possible. Monitoring what you see online and following the mantra of, “If you see something, say something” will be just as important as corporations and developers monitoring on their end.

When Social Media Puts Law Enforcement In Harm’s Way, Put The Cats To Work

Social media has become a powerful tool for law enforcement, especially with the addition of location based social media monitoring. It can be helpful in being alerted to potential situations, finding witnesses to a crime, and even monitoring for potential threats to the general public.

With the good, however, comes the not-so-good. Because people love to post on social sites, there are times that this can put police in harm’s way or create a breakdown in a situation. The most recent example of this occurred overseas – Brussels to be exact. With the city on lockdown due to potential threats, law enforcement has been diligently looking for clues that support the possibility of a threat, and prevent it before it happens.

Yesterday, news broke that some streets were being closed off and heavy police activity was noted. People were posting comments and images from their windows, hotel rooms, and on the street. Officials, knowing that this was of course happening, tried to stop it so that those who may be involved in activities that pose a threat to the city are not tipped off. It sounded as though more police raids were in progress, similar to what we’ve seen in Paris in the last week, and police did not want anything to tip off those they were searching for.

In what seemed like a futile effort, federal police posted the following on Twitter:

“For safety, please observe radio silence on social media about ongoing police operations #Bruxelles. Thank you.”

When I saw this, I wondered how it would work – would people respond to the request, realizing that it was in everyone’s best interest? Or would it go unnoticed?

What happened next was pretty cool.

Residents took to the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown with a renewed goal. Rather than discuss what was happening, they turned the hashtag around and had some fun with it. Within a short period of time, residents flocked to social media and posted pictures of cats instead of anything happening in Brussels:

Federal officials were pleased with the public’s response and appreciative of the radio silence that allowed them to carry out their operations as covertly as possible. To thank the public, the tweet below was posted to their site earlier today:

“For cats who helped us last night….Help yourself!”

Will What You Post on Social Media Affect Your FICO Score?

While that’s not happening yet, it may play a role in the future.

The latest news reveals that FICO is rolling out a potentially new way to determine credit scores. This new method, referred to as FICO XD, is being used as a pilot program. According to the website, this new FICO score will be calculated using “alternativedata sources to give issuers a second opportunity to assess otherwise unscorable consumers.”

What does this mean? Essentially, they are partnering with Lexis Nexus Risk Solutions and Equifax to look at more widely spanned information, such as utility bill history and public records, in order to potentially provide credit to those who may not have a credit history as of yet, for example. This is an attempt to be able to offer credit to an untapped market – those who don’t have a FICO score and/or cannot be properly assessed using traditional methods.

While Lexis Nexus is geared toward public information that is more “informational” in nature, it would not be a surprise at all if, in the future, FICO utilizes social media content as a factor in determining one’s score. Seem farfetched? Maybe. Then again, think of how social media content is currently being used. What once started out as strictly social content is now being used by brands for marketing data, HR departments to make hiring decisions, and by law enforcement and law firms.

How could social data be used as a factor in generating a FICO score? By looking at an individual’s social media history, it can uncover some potential trends that may be in favor of that individual (or not). What if an individual’s social media accounts are filled with images of parties and commentary on how the rent is late yet again, but they aren’t concerned? What if an individual posts content about being “wasted yet another Friday night?” This is an informational, relatively loose predictive analysis when it comes to financial stability or financial risk, and one that FICO may eventually turn to in calculating credit risk on individuals.

That being said, we are still a way from that happening. Data collected through social media is still in murky water, and it will take some time to sort out how it can and cannot be used in situations such as this one. Hiring managers have quickly learned how to use social media to their advantage while maintaining strict FCRA standards; it won’t be long before other institutions follow suit.

It Takes a Village…

How often have you heard the term “it takes a village” – I’ve heard this mostly in relation to raising children. I think it now applies to social media.

More and more, when tragedies occur, the first thing we will hear is how their social media accounts gave clues or veiled indications that something was about to happen. This does not happen in all cases, of course, but it is heard more and more often. If that’s the case, why is more not being done?

Take the case of the recent Oregon shooting, the suspect’s social sites were allegedly filled with images of other shootings, guns, and the like. What’s more disturbing is that there was an anonymous chat circulating with a potential warning that this would be happening:

While the poster is listed as “anonymous”, why did no one involved alert authorities? In this instance, it was speculated that the other posters were like minded and were perhaps “egging him on.” However, perhaps if something was mentioned to someone, it could have been avoided.

On the flip side, a story recently made news where people DID act on what they saw. It was a widely circulated story about a young woman who was driving under the influence while live streaming using Periscope, an up and coming social media tool. Thankfully, as you can see from the bottom corner of the video, it is tagged with the city and state she is in. Part way through the video she also references a street name. People were chatting in response to her video, most encouraging her to not drive anymore, some simply not saying anything of substance. However, there were some who stepped up and called the local authorities; this woman was eventually arrested. Those who reported the incident likely saved her life and potentially others as well.

One of the potentially valuable benefits of the enhanced data collection methods in social media content is geotagged monitoring. Schools, law enforcement, social venues, and other similar entities are starting to realize the importance of this type of monitoring as a means of identifying potential threats in their community. By monitoring social data around their venue, they can be alerted to potential threats, or postings that indicate trouble in some way.

Of course not every community does this, or has the capability to do so. That’s why it takes a village – if everyone takes responsibility to report something “off” in social media, it can circumvent potential tragedies or help people in crisis.