CIA invests in companies that reveal your tweets and Instagram photos

Robot programs operating with complex objects, computer algorithms designed to detect "internal threats", and artificial intelligence capable of analyzing large data arrays are just a few technologies developed by companies commissioned by In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm. The CIA, according to a document received by The Intercept.

Still, the 38 previously unknown companies that receive funding from In-Q-Tel focus on gathering, filtering, analyzing and controlling social network information; The documents received indicate several companies working in this area, incl. Dataminr, Geofeedia, PATHAR and TransVoyant.
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These four firms, which provide unique tools for extracting data from platforms such as Twitter, were presented in San José at the February “CEO Summit” of firms sponsored by the fund, along with other companies from the In-Q-Tel list. .

These investments seem to reflect the growing interest of the CIA in monitoring social networks. Last September, David Cohen, the second in the CIA hierarchy, spoke at length at Cornell University about a long list of problems posed by new media. “The Islamic State’s sophisticated use of Twitter and other social networking platforms is a good example of the destructive use of these technologies,” he said.

Social networks also offer rich opportunities for potential intelligence; Cohen noted that Twitter messages from the Islamic State organization (also called ISIS, whose activity is prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation) provided useful information. “ISIL tweets and other social media posts telling about their actions often contain information that — especially when combined with other information — is of real value to intelligence,” he said.

The next stage of investment from In-Q-Tel has started now, since the CIA has expanded its operations in Silicon Valley, having established a new institution, the Digital Innovations Department, which is tasked with developing and deploying the most modern solutions by directly involving the private sector. The department works closely with In-Q-Tel to integrate modern technology into the intelligence capabilities of the entire agency.



Dataminr directly monitors the flow of data from Twitter to identify trends and detect emerging threats.

Dataminr directly tracks the flow of data from Twitter to visualize and quickly identify trends on behalf of law enforcement and hedge funds along with other clients.



Geofeedia collects territory-linked social media posts to monitor important real-time developments.

Geofeedia specializes in gathering territory-bound messages from platforms such as Twitter and Instagram to monitor important events in real time. The company, whose customers include dozens of local law enforcement agencies, is launching to the market its ability to track the protests of activists on behalf of both corporations and police departments.



PATHAR keeps track of social networks for associations.

Dunami, developed by PATHAR, is used by the FBI to “monitor Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social networks to identify associations, centers of influence and potential signs of extremism,” according to a Reveal study.


TransVoyant analyzes information flows to ensure understanding of global events and their prediction.

Founded by Dennis Grozekloz, former vice president of Lockheed Martin, TransVoyant provides similar services to the so-called “Decision makers” by analyzing numerous information flows. The firm advertises its ability to track Twitter to identify "criminal gangs" and threats to journalists. The team from TransVoyant worked with US troops in Afghanistan, combining data from satellites, radar, reconnaissance aircraft and drones.

Dataminr, Geofeedia and PATHAR did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Heather Crotty, marketing director at TransVoyant, recognized the investment from In-Q-Tel, but refused to discuss the scope of their relationship. In-Q-Tel "did not disclose the financial terms of its investments," said Ms. Crotty.

Carrie A. Sessain, vice president of external affairs at In-Q-Tel, also rejected the interview because the foundation “does not participate in interviews or other events for the media.”

In the past ten years, In-Q-Tel has made several public investments in firms specializing in processing large amounts of online data. In 2009, the foundation collaborated with the Visible Technologies company, which specializes in managing reputation on the Internet, determining the influence of “positive” and “negative” authors on a number of platforms for a certain subject. Six years ago, In-Q-Tel began working with NetBase, another social media analytics firm that touts its ability to view “billions of sources in public and private online information,” and also with Recorded Future. , which tracks the network to predict events.



Bruce Lund, one of the leaders of In-Q-Tel, noted in a 2012 article that “monitoring social networks” is becoming increasingly important for government agencies seeking to track “developing political movements, crises, epidemics and disasters, to speak of general global trends. ”

The recent wave of investment in social networking companies makes us think that the CIA has accelerated the movement to make the collection of user-generated online data a priority. In-Q-Tel, along with its investment in start-ups, is also developing a special technology laboratory in Silicon Valley called Lab41 to provide intelligence agencies with tools for analyzing large data sets.

In February, Lab41 published an article exploring the ways in which the location of a certain Twitter user can be predicted fairly confidently through the location of this user's friends. On Github, a publicly accessible developer site, Lab41 currently has a project — to find out “the ability to use an architecture like Convolutional and Recurrent Neural Networks to determine emotional coloring — positive, negative or neutral — Twitter messages (tweets) by some or a specific topic. "

Intelligence activities involving the collection of information on foreign adversaries are very useful in countering terrorism, but this CIA-supported surveillance technology is also used by national law enforcement agencies and the private sector to track groups of active citizens.
The company Palantir, which was one of the very first to receive support from In-Q-Tel for the analysis of social networks, as announced in 2011 by the hacker group LulzSec, was negotiating a proposal to monitor trade union activists and other critics of the US Chamber of Commerce ( the largest lobby group representing business interests in Washington). The company, now referred to as “technology unicorn” - a term for startups with a market valuation of more than $ 1 billion - distanced itself from this plan after it became publicly available among emails from the now defunct HBGary Federal.

However, other companies supported by In-Q-Tel are currently openly practicing this practice. Geofeedia, for example, conducts its research on Greenpeace activists, student demonstrations, defenders of the law on minimum wages and other political movements. Police departments in Auckland, Chicago, Detroit and other major municipalities have contracts with Geofeedia, as well as private firms such as Mall of America and McDonald's.

Lee Gatman, a leader at Geofeedia, told reporter John Nefel that his company could predict the violence potential of the Black Lives Matter protest (Black Life Matter), using only the location and emotional tweets. Gatman said that this technology can reveal emotional tinges by applying “positive and negative points” to well-known phrases, measuring “the proximity of certain words to others”.

Privacy advocates, however, are worried about these types of automated assessments.
“When there are private companies deciding which algorithms make you a so-called threatening object or suspect, there is obviously a space for collecting information about individuals based on their views or even for such illegal actions based on race or religion of citizens” , said Lee Rowland, authorized by the leadership of the American Civil Liberties Union.

She added that the government has a dangerous tendency to rely on information technology companies to “collect comprehensive dossiers on people” using “only constitutionally protected personal conversations”.