CIA invests in systems that can collect and monitor information from Twitter and Instagram

American intelligence agency / intelligence agency CIA has a venture capital firm called "In - Q - Tel", and In - Q - Tel invests in 38 companies. Companies that develop and research a variety of technologies are on the investment list. In particular, CIA found that it focused on technology that enables information gathering and monitoring from social media.

The CIA Is Investing in Firms That Mine Your Tweets and Instagram Photos
https://theintercept.com/2016/04/14/in-undisclosed-cia-investments-social-media-mining-looms-large/

In September 2015, CIA's top 2 David Cohen gave a lecture at Cornell University. Mr. Cohen explained an example that "Islamic state (Islamic state, IS) was able to obtain useful information from Twitter tweet". CIA admits that social media including Twitter is a worthwhile platform to watch on countermeasures against terrorists.

From the list of In-Q-Tel's investee companies, it can be inferred that CIA is aiming to strengthen monitoring of social media. In February 2016, "CEO Summit" was held, which gathered investment companies of CIA's venture capital firm In-Q-Tel. At the CEO Summit, each company presented presentations on their respective tools and platforms. Among them were four companies that are developing tools to enable data mining from SNS such as Twitter "Dataminr" "Geofeedia" "PATHAR" "TransVoyant".

◆ Datamin


Dataminr provides a system using its own algorithm that analyzes Twitter etc. in real time, classifies it according to the set category and notifies it. Dataminr handles 500 million tweets of information every day, and the analyzed tweets are made to visualize the areas where they originated. In 2014 Dataminr, as Twitter official tool "Dataminr for News"We are building the. It has official permission to acquire Twitter's data stream, so it can be said that you can analyze highly accurate information.

◆ Geofeedia


Geofeedia is a tool specialized in extracting messages with location information from social media such as Twitter and Instagram. It is used to monitor the latest news and events in real time. Geofeedia has many law enforcement agencies as clients, and the ability to track activists' protest activities is said to be useful.

◆ PATHAR


PATHAR sells the product "Dunami". It was also used in FBI as a tool for data mining of SNS such as Twitter · Facebook · Instagram. It is possible to identify the source of information to be diffused and information that tends to become extreme.

◆ TransVoyant


American aircraft / space ship development manufacturing company ·Lockheed MartinTransVoyant was founded by Dennis Groseclose who served as VP at. It is a tool to analyze multiple data including SNS such as Twitter and to monitor the gang conflict and the threat to journalists.

The Intercept which summarized this case said that they asked for comments on these companies several times. Neither Dataminr, Geofeedia, PATHAR responded, TransVoyant's marketing director accepted investment from In-Q-Tel, but he did not comment on the purpose of investment. In-Q-Tel's VP answered "I am not in compliance with the media interview".

The list of In - Q - Tel's investee companies is as follows.