Florida agency spied on protestors with pricey social media monitoring software

By Brian Seay

Stills from videos shot by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at a rally against President Donald Trump in November. (Photo: Florida Times-Union)
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office used software to monitor social media activity of people at a number of protests in the last several years.
A spokesperson for the agency told the Florida Times-Union they’ve stopped using Geofeedia, a subscription service that scans Facebook, Twitter and other social sites based on keywords, but wouldn’t say whether they’ve stopped social media surveillance altogether.
The use of Geofeedia “was discontinued by this agency when it was determined that the cost/benefit was not satisfactory,” said Lauri-Ellen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office.
In October, the agency said a yearly subscription to Geofeedia was $35,000. Cost aside, the efforts have some people questioning whether such surveillance violates the constitutional rights of residents.
“You couldn’t have designed a better case study on how social media surveillance seems to sweep up protected activity on the one hand and perhaps be a significant waste of time on the other,” said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, senior counsel at the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security program.
“It’s like they designed their alerts to give civil libertarians a heart attack,” she said.
Search terms such as “police,” “rally,”

Source: Guns.com