Facebook, Twitter and Instagram share data with social media surveillance startup

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, VK, Google's Picasa and Youtube were handing over user data access to a Chicago-based Startup — the developer of a social media monitoring tool — which then sold this data to law enforcement agencies for surveillance purposes, the ACLU disclosed Tuesday.

Government records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed that the big technology corporations gave "special access" to Geofeedia.

Geofeedia is a controversial social media monitoring tool that pulls social media feeds, and then makes it searchable and accessible to its clients, who can search by location or keyword to quickly find recently posted and publicly available contents.

The company has marketed its services to 500 law enforcement and public safety agencies as a tool to track protests. Geofeedia has entered into agreements with Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for their users' data, gaining a developer-level access to all three social networks that allowed them to review streams of user content in ways that regular users of the public cannot. One Police Department recently signed a $30,000 annual deal with Geofeedia.

Nicole Ozer, technology, and civil liberties policy director for the ACLU of California said: "These special data deals were allowing the police to sneak in through a side door and use these powerful platforms to track protesters."

However, in response to the ACLU report, Geofeedia posted Tuesday an article justifying its commitment to Freedom of Speech and Civil Liberties.