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Did the guy who said he was going to "destroy America" have a public twitter feed? I'm wondering if making your tweets protected is enough to keep the FBI from

Did the guy who said he was going to "destroy America" have a public twitter feed? I'm wondering if making your tweets protected is enough to keep the FBI from reading them.

bilbo0s 15y ago
Uhh... I think you are underestimating the reach of the FBI and DHS. They know EXACTLY whose IP address is posting every comment, they just never go through them unless your spouse's body turns up somewhere. Then they go through everything. What is surprising to me is that they went through the e-communications of these two simply because they were traveling to the US. That's new info to me...I didn't think they did that.
- nollidge 15y ago
  I'm not sure you understand the question. It's not a matter of IP addresses. Protected tweets are not publicly accessible, so it's not a given that intelligence agencies have access to them unless Twitter is providing it to them, or they've hacked into them.
  - sp332 15y ago
    Twitter's privacy policy doesn't actually require a warrant to give up your "private" info (including your protected tweets). Law and Harm: We may preserve or disclose your information if we believe that it is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation or legal request; to protect the safety of any person; to address fraud, security or technical issues; or to protect Twitter's rights or property. https://twitter.com/privacy https://twitter.com/privacy
    - w1ntermute 15y ago
      Yes, but that's a moot point unless one of the following is true: 1) Twitter monitors all tweets itself for any "subversive" content, and then takes the initiative to report that to the appropriate authorities. 2) Twitter gives full access to all tweets to the FBI, regardless of their content, so that the FBI can sift through the data themselves. 1 isn't such a big deal, but 2 certainly is.
      - sp332 15y ago
        I doubt Twitter gives them everything since it's a difficult engineering problem to handle that much data. But I could easily believe the FBI has a list of terms or phrases that Twitter self-monitors for.
  - bilbo0s 15y ago
    Yes it is a given...it's right in Twitter's privacy policy that they will release your private information to the authorities when asked. Oh..sp332 beat me to it.
technoslut 15y ago
From what I've seen of the original post on HN, news organizations had his tweet, which means it was probably publicly available. >I'm wondering if making your tweets protected is enough to keep the FBI from reading them. It does alarm me that DM's are available when you search through their public profiles.
- jgrahamc 15y ago
  Where are their DMs available?
  - technoslut 15y ago
    When I go through their publicly available profile and look at their tweets, I can see tweets that did not appear in my timeline as public replies usually do. I can only assume these are DM's. EDIT: Am I somehow mistaken? I've seen them not only on well-known people but on friends as well when I asked them about this.
    - rfergie 15y ago
      I don't think these are direct messages. If you follow me and I @-reply someone who you do not follow then that tweet will appear in my public timeline but it will not appear in your home view.
      - technoslut 15y ago
        I've followed both and have seen them in their individual profiles which is why I always chose to use SMS for things that weren't meant to be public. Any public @reply or retweet I should see and have seen. If these are DM's I shouldn't see any part of the conversation.
        socksy 15y ago
        You're confused. These aren't DM's, they're public replies. Direct messages are sent using a "d [username]" instead of the "@[username]" syntax.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

Did the guy who said he was going to "destroy America" have a public twitter feed? I'm wondering if making your tweets protected is enough to keep the FBI from reading them.

bilbo0s 15y ago

Uhh... I think you are underestimating the reach of the FBI and DHS. They know EXACTLY whose IP address is posting every comment, they just never go through them unless your spouse's body turns up somewhere. Then they go through everything. What is surprising to me is that they went through the e-communications of these two simply because they were traveling to the US. That's new info to me...I didn't think they did that.

nollidge 15y ago
I'm not sure you understand the question. It's not a matter of IP addresses. Protected tweets are not publicly accessible, so it's not a given that intelligence agencies have access to them unless Twitter is providing it to them, or they've hacked into them.
- sp332 15y ago
  Twitter's privacy policy doesn't actually require a warrant to give up your "private" info (including your protected tweets). Law and Harm: We may preserve or disclose your information if we believe that it is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation or legal request; to protect the safety of any person; to address fraud, security or technical issues; or to protect Twitter's rights or property. https://twitter.com/privacy https://twitter.com/privacy
  - w1ntermute 15y ago
    Yes, but that's a moot point unless one of the following is true: 1) Twitter monitors all tweets itself for any "subversive" content, and then takes the initiative to report that to the appropriate authorities. 2) Twitter gives full access to all tweets to the FBI, regardless of their content, so that the FBI can sift through the data themselves. 1 isn't such a big deal, but 2 certainly is.
    - sp332 15y ago
      I doubt Twitter gives them everything since it's a difficult engineering problem to handle that much data. But I could easily believe the FBI has a list of terms or phrases that Twitter self-monitors for.
- bilbo0s 15y ago
  Yes it is a given...it's right in Twitter's privacy policy that they will release your private information to the authorities when asked. Oh..sp332 beat me to it.

technoslut 15y ago

From what I've seen of the original post on HN, news organizations had his tweet, which means it was probably publicly available. >I'm wondering if making your tweets protected is enough to keep the FBI from reading them. It does alarm me that DM's are available when you search through their public profiles.

jgrahamc 15y ago
Where are their DMs available?
- technoslut 15y ago
  When I go through their publicly available profile and look at their tweets, I can see tweets that did not appear in my timeline as public replies usually do. I can only assume these are DM's. EDIT: Am I somehow mistaken? I've seen them not only on well-known people but on friends as well when I asked them about this.
  - rfergie 15y ago
    I don't think these are direct messages. If you follow me and I @-reply someone who you do not follow then that tweet will appear in my public timeline but it will not appear in your home view.
    - technoslut 15y ago
      I've followed both and have seen them in their individual profiles which is why I always chose to use SMS for things that weren't meant to be public. Any public @reply or retweet I should see and have seen. If these are DM's I shouldn't see any part of the conversation.
      - socksy 15y ago
        You're confused. These aren't DM's, they're public replies. Direct messages are sent using a "d [username]" instead of the "@[username]" syntax.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]