Are You A Threat? Police Software Scans Your Social Media: “Very Dangerous For a Citizen”
Sticks and stones may break my bones. But names will never hurt me.
That old rhyme has been conventional wisdom for those bred in common sense and thick skins. But that world is fading away.
Its replacement is a now-cemented system of political correctness, ideological division, egg shell floors and, of course, always listening, always watching “big brothers” and “parental supervisors” who keep a look out, even if they assume you are doing nothing wrong.
Be that as it may, what you say, and what is said about you is now more likely than ever to land you in trouble with the law, or disqualify you for employment, promotion, government benefits or other opportunities.
The Washington Post reports:
Perhaps the most controversial and revealing technology is the threat-scoring software Beware. Fresno is one of the first departments in the nation to test the program.
As officers respond to calls, Beware automatically runs the address. The searches return the names of residents and scans them against a range of publicly available data to generate a color-coded threat level for each person or address: green, yellow or red.
Exactly how Beware calculates threat scores is something that its maker, Intrado, considers a trade secret, so it is unclear how much weight is given to a misdemeanor, felony or threatening comment on Facebook. However, the program flags issues and provides a report to the user.
In promotional materials, Intrado writes that Beware could reveal that the resident of a particular address was a war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, had criminal convictions for assault and had posted worrisome messages about his battle experiences on social media.
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