The Electronic Frontier Foundation, represented by he Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, has filed suit against six US government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), after they failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests inquiring about their respective use of social networking sites in both surveillance and investigations.
Reportedly, law enforcement agencies have been utilizing fake profiles in their efforts to trick social networking site users into allowing them to be online friends, which then allowed them to gather additional information from said users’ profiles in cases against them. According to a CNET article, the lawsuit alleges that “government officials have: used Facebook to hunt for fugitives and search for evidence of underage drinking; researched the activities of an activist on Facebook and LinkedIn; watched YouTube to identify riot suspects; searched the home of a social worker because of Twitter messages regarding police actions he sent during the G-20 summit; and used fake identities to trick Facebook users into accepting friend requests.”
