Dept. of Homeland Security Forced to Release List of Keywords Used to Monitor Social Networking Sites

The information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats. The Daily Mail's article noted the Electronic Privacy Information Center wrote a letter to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counter-terrorism and Intelligence, describing it's choice of words as 'broad, vague and ambiguous'.

What wasn't disclosed is how the agency as a matter of fact gains access to the various search engines and social networks to monitor the specified keywords. My guess is the DHS has a "special arrangement" with companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and Twitter to gain secure direct API access. This type of access would allow it to use distributed cloud technologies to monitor the daily flow of social media and search activity in something close to real time.

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