【】

Twitter continues to sever its ties with social media monitoring companies that provide information to law enforcement.
The company confirmed to Mashableon Thursday that it recently ended its relationship with Snaptrends.
SEE ALSO:Geofeedia isn't the only social media surveillance company giving data to policeThe confirmation comes one week after Twitter publicly confirmed it had cut off another surveillance company's access to data it was marketing to law enforcement.
Tweet may have been deleted
The Snaptrends breakup was first reported by The Daily Dot.
Snaptrends is a social media surveillance company headquartered in Austin, Texas.
According to correspondence between Austin police and the company's director of sales -- published by The Austin Chroniclein 2015 -- Snaptrends "developed its software intelligence system to serve public safety organization [sic] and national intelligence agencies in the United States."
The "privacy policy" on the company's website says "in certain situations, Snaptrends may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements."
The same page also states only that the company "may share personal information when we have your consent to do so, when required by law, when required to protect our rights or property, as necessary to complete a transaction you have requested, or for marketing purposes."

Snaptrends has also touted how the company has helped boost the number of arrests a police department was able to carry out while executing warrants, according to The Daily Dot. It has provided numerous police groups with access to its software.
Last week, Twitter -- which says it has long had a company policy that prohibits third parties from selling Twitter data in order to surveil users -- cut ties with Geofeedia for similar reasons.
Geofeedia, which is used by law enforcement groups as well as media companies, is able to collect tweets, Instagrams, Facebook posts and other types of social media in a certain geographic area.
Twitter cut off Geofeedia's access after an ACLU investigation revealed Geofeedia had marketed its software to police departments as a way to track activists and protesters. Facebook and Instagram had also recently done the same.

Geofeedia and Snaptrends are just two of many social media surveillance companies. Several provide services to law enforcement.
Companies and products such as Media Sonar, Beware and Digital Stakeout have all provided and marketed their services to various law enforcement groups. Beware even assigns a "threat level" to individuals, though the method of assigning those levels is a company secret.
Social media surveillance is just one form of surveillance law enforcement throughout the country use to track civilians, little of which the public is generally aware of.
These various types of surveillance often have a disproportionate impact on black communities.
Police use of cell site simulators -- commonly known as Stingrays -- allow officers to collect cellphone data from phones in a general area where the simulators are deployed. The simulators are also known to disrupt phone service in those areas.

In Baltimore, civil rights organizations filed a Federal Communications Commission complaint alleging that police in the city deploy cell site simulators in predominantly black neighborhoods at higher rates than other parts of the city.
Facial recognition technology -- used by around 25 percent of police departments across the country -- also has a disproportionate effect on black civilians.
Recognition algorithms often perform worse when trying to identify black people as opposed to white people, meaning black people have a greater chance of being mislabeled a criminal suspect.
Mashablereached out to Snaptrends by email and phone, but did not hear back before publishing.
TopicsFacebookInstagramSocial MediaTwitter
相关文章
Photos show the Blue Cut fire blazing a path of destruction in California
A fast moving wildfire continued raging near San Bernadino, California, forcing the evacuation of at2025-04-03TikTok is reportedly testing a 'Watch History' feature
Tiktok is reportedly testing a new Watch History feature, making it easier to find that one video yo2025-04-03The 8 best athletes to follow on Twitter
For decades, professional athletes were just little guys and gals who appeared primarily on our TV s2025-04-03'Wordle' today: Here's the April 4 answer, hints
Good day, Wordlers! As always, if you couldn't solve the April 4 Wordleand just want to get to the a2025-04-03Visualizing July's astounding global temperature records
July set a rare temperature record during a year that is featuring off the charts warmth. The month2025-04-03'Windfall' review: A stunning Netflix thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end
Some films are so painfully predictable that you know exactly what will happen before you reach the2025-04-03
最新评论