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Twitter May Have Cut Spy Agencies Off From Its Flood of Data
Source: Wired
BRIAN BARRETT SECURITY 05.09.16 4:07 PM
Twitter May Have Cut Spy Agencies Off From Its Flood of Data
AT TWITTER’S BEHEST, US intelligence agencies have lost access to Dataminr, a company that turns social media data into an advanced notification system, according to the Wall Street Journal. While that may sound like a win for privacy, it’s a bit more complicated in practice.
The move leaves government officials without a valuable tool. Somewhat less clear is what sort of stand, if any, Twitter is taking.
Big Bad Data
There are a few threads to untangle here, and plenty of unanswered questions. Dataminr has been in business since 2009, and its main gig is scouring social media for patterns that might indicate breaking news, using algorithms to give those patterns a context and identity, and delivering the result in the form of a real-time breaking news alert. It’s like when you get NYT news alerts on your phone, but on big-data steroids, and only available to clients with a big enough checkbook.
Until recently, according to the Journal, various US defense agencies were among those clients.
“From the government perspective, it’s a good tool, because it gives real-time alerts to things that are happening before anyone really knows what’s going on,” says Aki Peritz, a former CIA counterterrorism expert and current adjunct professor at American University. “We want to allow law enforcement and the intelligence services to know bad things are happening in real time.”
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Twitter May Have Cut Spy Agencies Off From Its Flood of Data
AT TWITTER’S BEHEST, US intelligence agencies have lost access to Dataminr, a company that turns social media data into an advanced notification system, according to the Wall Street Journal. While that may sound like a win for privacy, it’s a bit more complicated in practice.
The move leaves government officials without a valuable tool. Somewhat less clear is what sort of stand, if any, Twitter is taking.
Big Bad Data
There are a few threads to untangle here, and plenty of unanswered questions. Dataminr has been in business since 2009, and its main gig is scouring social media for patterns that might indicate breaking news, using algorithms to give those patterns a context and identity, and delivering the result in the form of a real-time breaking news alert. It’s like when you get NYT news alerts on your phone, but on big-data steroids, and only available to clients with a big enough checkbook.
Until recently, according to the Journal, various US defense agencies were among those clients.
“From the government perspective, it’s a good tool, because it gives real-time alerts to things that are happening before anyone really knows what’s going on,” says Aki Peritz, a former CIA counterterrorism expert and current adjunct professor at American University. “We want to allow law enforcement and the intelligence services to know bad things are happening in real time.”
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Read more: https://www.wired.com/2016/05/twitter-dataminr-intelligence-community/
Source: TechCrunch
Dataminr was in an unpaid pilot with intel agencies when Twitter ended the deal
Posted 4 hours ago by Kate Conger, Ingrid Lunden
We’re heading into summer, but the chilly relationship between government bodies and private tech businesses is growing frostier by the day. In the latest development, it has emerged that Twitter requested one of its key B2B partners, Dataminr — a service that offers advanced social media analytics and early detection of major events like terrorist attacks or natural disasters — stop providing U.S. intelligence agencies with their tools and content.
But Dataminr isn’t ending its relationship with the government altogether: Dataminir still counts In-Q-Tel, the non-profit investment arm of the CIA, as an investor. Dataminr has taken investment from Twitter, too, highlighting some of the conflicts that remain as tech companies fight for more transparency and autonomy from government control.
Interestingly, the agencies who are at the center of today’s news were using Dataminr in an unpaid pilot, TechCrunch understands. That pilot, which was coming to an end, could not be continued as a paid deal because of pre-existing Twitter policies that forbid selling data for use in government surveillance.
The news of Dataminr cutting off intelligence groups was first reported by the WSJ, and we have confirmed the details directly with sources.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Posted 4 hours ago by Kate Conger, Ingrid Lunden
We’re heading into summer, but the chilly relationship between government bodies and private tech businesses is growing frostier by the day. In the latest development, it has emerged that Twitter requested one of its key B2B partners, Dataminr — a service that offers advanced social media analytics and early detection of major events like terrorist attacks or natural disasters — stop providing U.S. intelligence agencies with their tools and content.
But Dataminr isn’t ending its relationship with the government altogether: Dataminir still counts In-Q-Tel, the non-profit investment arm of the CIA, as an investor. Dataminr has taken investment from Twitter, too, highlighting some of the conflicts that remain as tech companies fight for more transparency and autonomy from government control.
Interestingly, the agencies who are at the center of today’s news were using Dataminr in an unpaid pilot, TechCrunch understands. That pilot, which was coming to an end, could not be continued as a paid deal because of pre-existing Twitter policies that forbid selling data for use in government surveillance.
The news of Dataminr cutting off intelligence groups was first reported by the WSJ, and we have confirmed the details directly with sources.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/09/dataminr-was-in-an-unpaid-pilot-with-intel-agencies-when-twitter-ended-the-deal/
