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Government Social Stalking Records Dent the Tax Man's Street Cred

by Warren Riddle on March 17, 2010 at 07:30 AM

Surreptitious spying has become firmly and universally established as a social networking given. Parents, employers, lovers, friends, and even law enforcement officials have turned to sites like Facebook and Twitter to monitor, find, and implicate frivolous and oblivious posters.

The legality of such practices rests in a gray area, though, and the potential wrongdoing is definitely not isolated to tricksters who set up fake profiles. Police and government officials, particularly those who attempt to deceive suspected criminals under the guise of fictitious accounts, may also be violating the inherent rights of U.S. citizens, with dubious tracking techniques.

In order to illuminate the unofficial government practice of social stalking, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (a digital civil liberties group) recently obtained internal records from the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice -- thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. The documents reveal various departmental guidelines for establishing social networking accounts, and the individual practices of each organization may be surprising.


While the records don't reveal any networking limitations or restrictions placed upon the FBI or the Secret Service, the documents do indicate that the constant brunt of public criticism, the evil and nefarious Tax Man, may actually be the most ethical and honest online agent. According to the Foundation, the IRS is worthy of praise because it "clearly prohibits employees from using deception or fake social networking accounts to obtain information."

The Foundation's Web site has posted the revealing 33-page document in its entirety, including the specific procedures for retaining and sharing information gleaned from undercover networking operations. The organization also plans to release more documents in the next few months as they become legally available. [From: The Huffington Post and the Electronic Frontier Foundation]

Tags: espionage, facebook, FacebookFaceLoss, FacebookStalkers, fbi, government, irs, justicedepartment, privacy, SocialNetworking

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