Google, CIA Invest in “Future” of Web Monitoring

Spies have long studied publicly available news reports or cultural events to gather data. Recorded Future is a new firm that tries the same with the internet, explains Noah Shachtman for Wired magazine, by analyzing connections, plotting momentum and trends, and predicting the future while studying websites, blogs or Twitter accounts. Google has joined the Central Intelligence Agency in supporting the firm, reigniting concern about how the world’s largest search engine collects and stores data on millions of choices made by computer users every day. Most users anticipate that overwhelming amounts of data provide some protection, and adversaries to such analysis undoubtedly will devise programs to show false trends. While technology is capable of screening and analyzing millions of posts and comments daily, such trend-spotting follows choices made by herds and could confront challenges in detecting unusual leadership activity. – YaleGlobal