In another sign that tensions between Silicon Valley and the US government are strong, Twitter is now barring US intel agencies from a service that analyzes the micro-blogging service's entire feed.
San Francisco-based Twitter has informed business partner Dataminr to cut off access to the CIA, NSA, and other government surveillance outfits. Twitter was concerned about the "optics" of appearing too cozy with the US intel community, The Wall Street Journal first reported Monday.
In a statement to Ars, Twitter downplayed the development. "Dataminr uses public Tweets to sell breaking news alerts to media organizations such as Dow Jones and government agencies such as the World Health Organization, for non-surveillance purposes," Twitter said. "We have never authorized Dataminr or any third party to sell data to a government or intelligence agency for surveillance purposes. This is a longstanding Twitter policy, not a new development."
Dataminr, of New York, did not immediately respond for comment. But the company, in which Twitter holds a 5 percent stake, has access to the entire tweet stream from Twitter's millions of users. Dataminr alerts subscribers—including media and financial services companies—to events like the recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.
A former US intelligence official said that Twitter was being "hypocritical." John Inglis, a former deputy director of the NSA told The Wall Street Journal, "I think it’s a bad sign of a lack of appropriate cooperation between a private-sector organization and the government."
The development comes amid what can best be described as an ongoing Silicon Valley public relations battle against the US government. It began with the disclosures of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 and has escalated ever since.
One of the biggest clashes with the US government involves Apple, which had been fighting demands from the FBI that it write software to crack a locked iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. The government dropped its demand after reportedly paying $1 million from a private company for a hack that allowed it to access the data stores on the phone. Microsoft and Twitter have also been battling the government on other fronts.
Microsoft is fighting the US position that it may search its overseas servers with a valid US warrant in a case that is pending before a federal appeals court. Just last week, Twitter lost a court fight in which it was seeking to release more details about the nature and number surveillance orders it receives about its users.
Dataminr is a seven-year-old company founded by Yale University students. It was valued last year at $700 million. The service uses algorithms and geolocation data to discover news developments and behavior patters.
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