Uscis monitoring facebook

If you use Facebook, then you should expect that all your information will be made public... by yourself by accepting strangers as your friends. I can't really blame USCIS for doing that.
 
"Once a user posts online, they create a public record and
timeline of their activities."

Provided the user does not delete the post.
 
Anyway, the point was, we know from Bush years, that warrants can not do much against a determined government. The government in most cases (which are not high profile) can get away with pushing the companies to toe their line, and post facto create laws to make their actions legal. While it happens in third world countries (sorry emerging economies) on a regular basis, days are not far when a government will be able to get a judge to sign any warrant ... as long as the benefits outweigh their agenda.
 
There have been arrests and suspensions from schools made from evidence found on facebook. I guess it's only logical that the USCIS would eventually make the leap as well.
 
An on what grounds do you think FDHS would get a warrant? On a suspicion that an immigration benefit recipient may or may not have committed fraud? The Patriot Act does not cover such warrants. There would have to be existing evidence that an applicant committed fraud for FDHS to be granted a warrant.
 
I am not going to get into the differences between FDHS and "the government". And I know this thread, I sound more like one of those anti-government loonies as compared to the pro-CIS slant I usually have. I am reminding this to put my comments in perspective.

However, the government is losing its ability to intercept people's communications because of so many people moving from plain old phones to so many other modes of communication. They (the govt) can not afford to lose that (power), and soon there will be hooks in all mainstream (or rather ALL) communications for either the government to intercept on a need basis, or just a dump of everything to check when they need to. Most likely you are going to hear about this after the program is underway for 2-3 or more years.

How will CIS use it? Not for day to day processing ... to begin with. However, I would not be surprised if this got plugged in as part of FBI check. Now does the FBI care whether you are a polygamist and should not be a citizen. Maybe not. But if you have other warning signs, don't be surprised regarding what they could do. Will the FBI work with CIS? That seems to be the weakest link. There would not be an incentive for these 2 departments to work with each other.

End of conspiracy stories.
 
Facebook and other social networking sites are privately owned and your posted information is in the public domain. Those posts are in no way protected. Your other government records are safer from USCIS and FBI than Facebook etc... Government records are protected against disclosure except under very specific conditions by the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act even between gov't agencies. In the private sector only medical and private attorney records are protected. In rare cases, medical and private legal records can be subpeonaed. Private sites can legally turn over anything and no warrant is required in most cases. The only sites that try to protect records are ones that try to claim that they are part of the news media asserting 1st amendment rights and trying to protect a confidential source.
 
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