The Washington Post recently circulated an article about how police officers are using social media to track gangs. We all know that social media sites can allow others to see personal information (if people do not set their privacy settings to protect themselves) such as home address, location, phone number, photos, personal activities, etc. Even with the privacy settings, agents and officers are granted access to individual’s social media pages by obtaining permission from the court system.
Examples included agents using Myspace to track down a gang who was utilizing the site to threaten federal witnesses, using Facebook to identify gang members, and using Facebook to locate a wanted gang member. As one federal law enforcement official said, “Gangs are just following societal trends.” This is a smart and unique tactic employed by law enforcement professionals to catch/track current as well as future gang members. Social media is being utilized by law enforcement to not only track and catch, but also to obtain information. Photographs can help identify people, location check-in points can tell police where they are at that exact moment, post made by friends can offer insight into their activities, etc. Police even read comments posted by teenagers, and visit homes of these teenagers to warn parents of the violent threats and comments made online.
This article is an interesting read. A majority of us are not criminals or gang members, but the article does demonstrate just how easy social media makes it for the world to know our every move as well as personal information. I am not saying this is a bad thing (trust me I love social media), just pointing out that ease of access is there and will continue to be there. Just remember, once you put something out there on a social media site, it remains there.
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