About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 Boston Public Records Request, January 30, 2020 [1] (2020)

handle is hein.brennan/bstonprrj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE January 30, 2020 Re: Freedom of Information Law Request Dear Sir or Madam: This is a request under the Massachusetts Public Records Law, Mass. Gen. Laws, Ch. 66, § 10, on behalf of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law (Brennan Center). The Brennan Center seeks information relating to the Boston Police Department's use of social media to collect information about individuals, groups, and activities, described below as social media monitoring. Background In general, social media monitoring is a term describing the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to gather information for purposes including, but not limited to, identifying potential threats, reviewing breaking news, collecting individuals' information, conducting criminal investigations and intelligence, and gauging public sentiment. Social media monitoring can be conducted through individual, direct use of social media platforms and their search functions (including via the use of a social media account, either public or undercover), or through third-party monitoring tools that use keywords, geographic locations, and data mining to identify trends and networks of association, such as Geofeedia or Dunami. In 2017, records obtained through the Massachusetts Public Records Law revealed that the Boston Police Department (BPD) had employed a social media surveillance system called Geofeedia to monitor the social media posts of Bostonians from 2014 to 2016, without the knowledge of the Boston City Council.1 During this time, Geofeedia alerted the BPD to thousands of posts across at least seven social media platforms-including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.2 There is no indication that this surveillance 1 See Iqra Asghar, Boston Police Used Social Media Surveillance for Years Without Informing City Council, ACLU.ORG (Feb. 8, 2018), lt- /Ir --y technoiov/nternet- 2 Id. Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law 1140 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20036

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most