Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is employing a new procedure, trolling public social media for threats to the agency’s personnel, operations and facilities. The federal agency was under fire recently for its databases on activists, attorneys and journalists working for immigrant rights. (FCW, March 27, 2019, by Adam Mazmanian)
Brennan Center researcher Rayua Koreh in Just Security, April 26, 2019, writes, “Collecting information in emergency situations and to ensure public safety undoubtedly are important, but CBP collects vast amounts of irrelevant information – far beyond what would be required for emergency awareness – by amassing all social media posts that include matches to designated keywords. While CBP’s list of keywords is not publicly available, earlier DHS situational awareness programs used broad terms such as ‘attack,’ ‘border,’ ‘Mexico,” and ‘cops.’ According to the PIA (Privacy Impact Assessment), CBP may also collect all posts that reference the names of individuals who ‘have been involved in events that could lead to credible threats,’ which could extend to mere bystanders.” While CBJ claims to avoid storing information related to protected free speech activities, there are fears that they are making exceptions to that rule particularly when they view the activities as threatening or dangerous.
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