activistpost.com / By Mick Meaney, Contributor / Monday, February 11, 2013
A video obtained by the Guardian details “new” surveillance software that is capable of gathering vast amounts of personal information about people from websites like Facebook and Twitter.
Raytheon, the company behind the software, has confirmed that it had already shared the technology with the US government in 2010, effectively creating what has been dubbed as a “Google for spies”.
The Guardian also reports that Rapid Information Overlay Technology, or Riot, mines multiple online sources to build up detailed pictures of someones life, including their friends and the places they visit.
As you’d rightly expect, some concerns have been raised.
An attorney at the Electronic Privacy Information Centre, Ginger McCall said:
Social networking sites are often not transparent about what information is shared and how it is shared. Users may be posting information that they believe will be viewed only by their friends, but instead, it is being viewed by government officials or pulled in by data collection services like the Riot search.
