CHAPTER 4: TECHNOLOGY
4.27.
The year 2000 has been identified as the year a social networking site (Friends
Reunited) first appeared in the UK,20 with Facebook and Twitter appearing in 2004 and
2006 respectively. By Q4 2014, there were 1.39 billion monthly active Facebook users.
The equivalent figure for Twitter was 288 million.21 Such sites provide the opportunity
for an expansion of what is called Open Source Intelligence [OSINT]: the use of open
source information for intelligence purposes.22 In the US, an official report into the
events leading up to 9/11 recommended the setting up of an Open Source Agency. A
similar recommendation was made in an official report into weapons of mass
destruction shortly later. The Open Source Center was established by the Director of
National Intelligence in 2005.23 The Center was charged with collecting information
available from “the Internet, databases, press, radio, television, video, geospatial data,
photos and commercial imagery.”24 A former head of the bin Laden Unit of the Central
Intelligence Agency in the United States noted that “90% of what you need to know”
comes from OSINT.25 According to a report in 2010, “in the aftermath of 9/11,
intelligence failures - particularly a deficient consideration of OSINT … - have been
identified as major reasons for the inability to anticipate and prevent these attacks.”26
In October 2014, James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, described social
media as “huge for intelligence purposes”.27
4.28.
As explained to the JCDCDB by Colin Crowell, Head of Global Public Policy at Twitter,
law enforcement can simply go to the Twitter website and locate what they are looking
for. Even this may no longer necessary: a social media monitoring platform called
Geofeedia allows anyone to “search, monitor and analyse real-time social media
content by location, from anywhere in the world with a single click.”28 In addition, social
data providers, such as GNIP, provide a one-stop shop for social data.
4.29.
UK law enforcement and security and intelligence agencies of course use OSINT,
though the extent of that use is not publicly known.29 By way of example, following a
review by the Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary of the August 2011 disorders
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
A. Charlesworth, An Introduction to Social Media Marketing, 2014, p.43.
See: http://www.statista.com, 2015.
In 2012, the term “SOCMINT” was coined to cover Social Media Intelligence (see Sir D. Omand, J.
Bartlett and C. Miller, “Introducing Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT)”, (2012) Intelligence and
National Security, Vol 27, Issue 6. Others regard it as part of OSINT: see “Social Media Intelligence
(SOCMINT) – Same Song, New Melody?”, Open Source Intelligence Blog, 31 October 2012.
Open Source Intelligence in a Networked World, Antony Olcott, (2012), pp. 86-87.
See the press release by the Office of the Director for National Intelligence: ODNI Announces
Establishment
of
Open
Source
Center,
November
8
2005,
see:
http://fas.org/irp/news/2005/11/odni110805.html.
S. B. Glasser, “Probing Galaxies of Data for Nuggets”, The Washington Post, 25 November 2005.
International Relations and Security Network, OSINT Report 3/2010, (2010), p.6.
In a speech at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington DC, a copy of which can be found at:
http://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/speeches-and-interviews/202-speeches-interviews2014/files/documents/Newsroom/title=%22Go.
See Geofeedia’s website: http://geofeedia.com/how-it-works.
I am aware that Privacy International have made Freedom of Information requests to law enforcement
but that these were refused.
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