Twitter refuses to CIA data access – BBC

private vs public

Dataminr is a private company that has access to the tweets flow and relative analysis which then sells to other society. Twitter holds a 5 percent stake. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal , Twitter has blocked Dataminr access to its platform. The news was confirmed to the US newspaper by a source of services. For the little blue bird access by third parties to its content it is becoming an issue as more and more is perceived by users as an invasion of privacy. So, just as happened to the iPhone in the San Bernardino terrorist, the tech giant has raised a wall in front of the authorities. If, on the time the White House has asked for help to the Silicon Valley in the fight against terrorism, clearly the efforts made to date is considered by more than enough private. In a statement the representatives of Twitter explained: “Our content is mainly public (posts can be seen by anyone, editor’s note) and the US government can access it just like everyone else.” Which, translated, it means “if you want to look at what our users do you have to limit yourself to what is visible.” Through data mining you can have more information, especially in a statistical sense (how many people are posting on a given subject) and geographically (from where are posting). valuable information both for companies and for the authorities. In the case of the attacks in Paris and in Brussels, for example, it was through this system that has been given the warning 10 minutes before the media would start the coverage of the facts.

the debate

There have been criticisms of the behavior of society founded by Jack Dorsey: “If Twitter continues to sell this data to individuals but to deny them government behaves hypocritically, “said John Inglis, a former NSA director, the National Security Agency. “And I do not see kindly to a lack of public-private cooperation when it comes to security,” he added. Again, therefore, we talk of privacy and terrorism in relation to the tools that every day millions of people worldwide use. A Twitter had already been asked to intervene to remove the propaganda content of the Islamic State, and since the death of US reporter James Foley on it was made an effort in this direction through algorithms and software. However for more intelligence officers it has been asked not to censor the content posted by terrorists on the network, because they were considered useful – as pointed out by David S. Cohen, former director of the CIA – to hunt down militants Isis. The debate, in short, is still open.

May 10, 2016 (modified May 10, 2016 | 16:15)

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED