FBI Support for Spyware Alarms Privacy Advocates
The FBI is spending $27 million on Babel X, a software program that lets users search social media sites within a geographic area. Privacy advocates see a disturbing trend in the agency's focus on social media tracking.
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The FBI is doubling down on tracking social media posts, spending as much as $27 million to use Babel X, a software made by Babel Street that lets users search social media sites within a geographic area and use other parameters that privacy and civil liberties advocates say raise serious concerns, reports the Washington Post.
The new contract appears to be by far the most the agency has ever shelled out for the software, and is one of the largest contracts for the software by a civilian agency.
The FBI awarded the contract for 5,000 Babel X licenses after telling contractors it wanted software to “gather information” from “Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Deep/Dark Web, VK and Telegram.”
Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said he has “real concerns based on the [FBI’s] history and based on the fact that we don’t know how they’re using it and who they’re going after.”
Jordan said that he’d like FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to testify before the committee so he can get answers about the contract, NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware and other issues. In its contracting documents, the FBI reiterates that it only wants access to publicly available information, “meaning no logins or court orders are required to access them.”
The FBI estimates that its 5,000 licensees will run around 20,000 keyword searches every month, though it cautioned that that’s “merely an estimate.” Matt Cagle, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, said social media surveillance raises civil liberties concerns even if the surveillance is focused on public posts and profiles.
