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The Feds are on Facebook. And MySpace,
LinkedIn and Twitter, too.


      U.S. law enforcement agents are following the rest of the
Internet world into popular social-networking services, going
undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects
and gather private information, according to an internal Justice
Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues
related to privacy and crime-fighting.


      Think you know who's behind that "friend" request? Think
again. Your new "friend" just might be the FBI.


      The document, obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit,
makes clear that U.S. agents are already logging on surreptitiously
to exchange messages with suspects, identify a target's friends or
relatives and browse private information such as postings, personal
photographs and video clips.


      Among other purposes: Investigators can check suspects' alibis
by comparing stories told to police with tweets sent at the same
time about their whereabouts. Online photos from a suspicious
spending spree - people posing with jewelry, guns or fancy cars -
can link suspects or their friends to robberies or burglaries.


      The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based civil
liberties group, obtained the Justice Department document when it
sued the agency and five others in federal court. The 33-page
document underscores the importance of social networking sites to
U.S. authorities. The foundation said it would publish the document
on its Web site on Tuesday.


      With agents going undercover, state and local police coordinate
their online activities with the Secret Service, FBI and other
federal agencies in a strategy known as "deconfliction" to keep
out of each other's way.


      "You could really mess up someone's investigation because
you're investigating the same person and maybe doing things that
are counterproductive to what another agency is doing," said
Detective Frank Dannahey of the Rocky Hill, Conn., Police
Department, a veteran of dozens of undercover cases.


      A decade ago, agents kept watch over AOL and MSN chat rooms to
nab sexual predators. But those text-only chat services are
old-school compared with today's social media, which contain
mountains of personal data, photographs, videos and audio clips - a
potential treasure trove of evidence for cases of violent crime,
financial fraud and much more.


      The Justice Department document, part of a presentation given in
August by top cybercrime officials, describes the value of
Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and other services to
government investigators. It does not describe in detail the
boundaries for using them.


      "It doesn't really discuss any mechanisms for accountability or
ensuring that government agents use those tools responsibly," said
Marcia Hoffman, a senior attorney with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation.

      The group sued in Washington to force the government to disclose
its policies for using social networking sites in investigations,
data collection and surveillance.


      The foundation also obtained an Internal Revenue Service
document that instructs employees on how to use to use Internet
tools - including social networking sites - to investigate
taxpayers. The document states that IRS employees are barred from
using deception or creating fake accounts to get information, a
directive the group says is commendable.


      Covert investigations on social-networking services are legal
and governed by internal rules, according to Justice Department
officials. But they would not say what those rules are.


      The Justice Department document raises a legal question about a
social-media bullying case in which U.S. prosecutors charged a
Missouri woman with computer fraud for creating a fake MySpace
account - effectively the same activity that undercover agents are
doing, although for different purposes.


      The woman, Lori Drew, helped create an account for a fictitious
teen boy on MySpace and sent flirtatious messages to a 13-year-old
neighborhood girl in his name. The girl hanged herself in October
2006, in a St. Louis suburb, after she received a message saying
the world would be better without her.


      A jury in California, where MySpace has its servers, convicted
Drew of three misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without
authorization because she was accused of violating MySpace's rules
against creating fake accounts. But last year a judge overturned
the verdicts, citing the vagueness of the law.


      "If agents violate terms of service, is that 'otherwise illegal
activity'?" the document asks. It doesn't provide an answer.


      Facebook's rules, for example, specify that users "will not
provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an
account for anyone other than yourself without permission."
Twitter's rules prohibit its users from sending deceptive or false
information. MySpace requires that information for accounts be
"truthful and accurate."


      A former U.S. cybersecurity prosecutor, Marc Zwillinger, said
investigators should be able to go undercover in the online world
the same way they do in the real world, even if such conduct is
barred by a company's rules. But there have to be limits, he said.


      In the face-to-face world, agents can't impersonate a suspect's
spouse, child, parent or best friend. But online, behind the guise
of a social-networking account, they can.


      "This new situation presents a need for careful oversight so
that law enforcement does not use social networking to intrude on
some of our most personal relationships," said Zwillinger, whose
firm does legal work for Yahoo and MySpace.


      Undercover operations aren't necessary if the suspect is
reckless. Federal authorities nabbed a man wanted on bank fraud
charges after he started posting Facebook updates about the fun he
was having in Mexico.


      Maxi Sopo, a native of Cameroon living in the Seattle area,
apparently slipped across the border into Mexico in a rented car
last year after learning that federal agents were investigating the
alleged scheme. The agents initially could find no trace of him on
social media sites, and they were unable to pin down his exact
location in Mexico. But they kept checking and eventually found
Sopo on Facebook.


      While Sopo's online profile was private, his list of friends was
not. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Scoville began going through
the list and was able to learn where Sopo was living. Mexican
authorities arrested Sopo in September. He is awaiting extradition
to the U.S.

      The Justice document describes how Facebook, MySpace and Twitter
have interacted with federal investigators: Facebook is "often
cooperative with emergency requests," the government said. MySpace
preserves information about its users indefinitely and even stores
data from deleted accounts for one year. But Twitter's lawyers tell
prosecutors they need a warrant or subpoena before the company
turns over customer information, the document says.

      "Will not preserve data without legal process," the document
says under the heading, "Getting Info From Twitter ... the bad
news."


      Twitter did not respond to a request for comment for this story.


      The chief security officer for MySpace, Hemanshu Nigam, said
MySpace doesn't want to be the company that stands in the way of an
investigation. "That said, we also want to make sure that our
users' privacy is protected and any data that's disclosed is done
under proper legal process," Nigam said.


      MySpace requires a search warrant for private messages less than
six months old, according to the company.


      Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the company has put
together a handbook to help law enforcement officials understand
"the proper ways to request information from Facebook to aid
investigations."


      The Justice document includes sections about its own lawyers.
For government attorneys taking cases to trial, social networks are
a "valuable source of info on defense witnesses," they said.
"Knowledge is power. ... Research all witnesses on social
networking sites."


      But the government warned prosecutors to advise their own
witnesses not to discuss cases on social media sites and to "think
carefully about what they post."


      It also cautioned federal law enforcement officials to think
prudently before adding judges or defense counsel as "friends" on
these services.

      "Social networking and the courtroom can be a dangerous
combination," the government said.


      On the Net:
      Link to Justice Department document: http://tinyurl.com/yjc6mql
      

The Feds embrace social networking, even operating undercover online

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