Kelsey Anspach and Peter Lacerenza
News Editor and Features Editor
In this day and age, there is no denying that social networking sites play an increasingly important role in students’ lives, whether they’re used to communicate about school and sports, publicize events, or catch up with friends. Because websites like Facebook and Twitter allow students to share information with such facility, people often have a tendency to post every uncut detail of their lives on the Internet.
While some may think nothing of posting such information, they might do well to remember that once something is on the Internet, it’s there for anyone to see. Schools, police and even government agencies have the ability to simply log into these websites to access a plethora of information about students’ activities.
Recently, the threat of Internet surveillance seemed more real than ever when speculation came to suggest that a fake Facebook profile made by the local police was being used as a surveillance mechanism to look for questionable content on students’ profiles. “For a few days I heard people saying at lunch that the police had created a profile to see if kids had pictures of drinking on Facebook,” senior Caroline Blasco said. “I always thought it was only a matter of time before something like that happened.”
However, Chief Edward Nadriczny of the New Canaan Police Department assured that this is not the case. “The use of Twitter and Facebook could be very beneficial to the police department in conducting certain investigations,” he said. “At this time, we are not randomly checking the social websites unless we are looking for certain information to aid an investigation. To my knowledge, we have not created any phony accounts to monitor activity.”
Regardless, it seems likely that such tactics will be utilized in the future. “If the need arose during the course of an investigation, we would use Facebook and Twitter to obtain any needed information,” Chief Nadriczny said. “Ideally, we’d use it if we had to find information about someone, or as an aid to determine who someone is. We would also like to be proactive and have officers pose as young females on websites and in chatrooms in an attempt to identify and apprehend sexual predators.”
Although the idea of the police using the Internet in investigations may seem like an invasion of privacy, it is a legal practice. “If they have a warrant, state officials can do it too,” history teacher Stephen Vehslage said.
Furthermore, the police don’t even need a warrant to create fake Internet profiles to look for crime. “There’s no rule that says they have to identify themselves as policemen,” Mr. Vehslage said. “The vast majority of criminal law is state law, and is enforced by state and local officials. Just like the FBI, they need their own menu of tools and techniques to disrupt criminal enterprises.”
The NCPD has already used the Internet to help an investigation in another nearby town. “Last year we worked with another community on an investigation about information a citizen intercepted while on the internet,” Chief Nadriczny said. “I’m certain other police departments are utilizing the social websites as needed, as we are. However, at this point in time we are unable to proactively monitor the Internet because we don’t have adequate staffing levels.”
But there are limits pertaining to the ways police can legally investigate through networking sites. “We would certainly use the social networking sites as an investigative tool, but we also have to be careful of something called ‘entrapment,’ which is like inviting someone to participate in a criminal act and then arresting them,” Chief Nadriczny said. “There’s a fine line, and obviously we would need to provide training for officers who would be doing that.”
The state of Connecticut has a program to train police so that they can avoid problems like entrapment. “The state actually does offer training to officers to learn how to put themselves out on the Internet and find a predator,” Chief Nadriczny said. “The state is in the process of setting up a task force to investigate these crimes. We are working with a State’s Attorney who is involved with the task force, and we are hopeful that we will be able to get some training for selected officers in the police department.”
While the use of Internet surveillance is starting to become prevalent at the local level, it is more frequently used at the national level. “The government is definitely doing it,” Mr. Vehslage said. “There’s an act called the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act, which requires organizations that manage computer networks to keep and provide emails, wire data, and any communication across the network for law enforcement purposes if they need it.”
Though the Internet can serve as a useful tool for law enforcement, many feel that Internet surveillance and the creation of fake profiles is an overstepping of government boundaries. “It’s kind of scary. I feel that the government is keeping tabs on us in so many ways, like the cameras they put in stores and in cities, and this is just another way that they can keep track of us,” junior Amanda Milunovich said.
To address such concerns, organizations like the San Francisco-based Electronics Frontier Foundation (EFF) have been established to spread awareness about government surveillance of the Internet. “Here at EFF, we’re not sure if people know that their information is being looked at. People know it’s public, but people don’t connect the dots about what other people can see or learn about them,” Rebecca Jeschke, Media Relations Director for the EFF, said.
Groups like the EFF have been taking steps to try and protect Internet users against the misuse of the Internet as an information source. “Recently we created the Freedom of Information Act request, which asks how government agencies like the IRS are using Myspace to find out if people are paying their taxes, or how the FBI is using Facebook to track criminals,” Ms. Jeschke said.
Although groups have been working to protect Internet users’ privacy rights, Internet surveillance is a logical extension of the current surveillance laws and seems likely to continue. “There’s certainly a delicate balance between concerns for personal liberty on one hand and concerns for law enforcement on the other,” Mr. Vehslage said. “I think concerns about privacy will probably get more airplay, particularly if concerns about terrorism diminish over time. However, I think internet surveillance is here to stay because it is very useful to law enforcement. It’s really just a function of a new form of communications technology. Law enforcement is going to want to be able to analyze communication between criminals, regardless of the medium.”
While the government may be monitoring social networking sites, there are still ways for people to make their own efforts to protect their privacy on the Internet. The easiest way to do this is by limiting what they put on the Internet. “The point that people need to realize is that everything on those websites is public information and many individuals may have access to the information posted,” Chief Nadriczny said.
Although some feel that such policies could be an invasion of privacy, many also see that looking for information on the Internet isn’t so different from digging for facts in a formal investigation. “I think that it’s deceiving to look around like that, but it’s really no different than a regular investigation,” sophomore Dylan Kavookjian said. “It’s no longer your property once it’s on the Internet, it’s up for other people to claim.”
After all, the nature of social networking sites is to share personal information with others. “That’s sort of the point of social networking sites,” Dylan said. “They allow you to put your information on the web so that people can get to know you a little better.”
Nevertheless, information students post on the Internet is often accessible to more people than intended. “People are aware that their friends can see their pictures, but sometimes they’re not aware of who their friends are,” Amanda said. “I sometimes accept friends requests from people I don’t necessarily talk to, usually if we have a lot of mutual friends. I’m also friends with my field hockey coach and teachers. Plus, classmates can make a lot of judgments you based on what you put online.”
