DHS Accepting Comments on Proposed Changes to Social Media Monitoring Privacy Impact Assessment

a notice in the Federal Register said Wednesday. OPS is updating this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) to address the privacy impact of using geospatial information offered by mobile media to enhance situational awareness, the update said. OPS and the National Operations Center (NOC) monitor publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites, Twitter and message boards to collect information to “provide situational awareness and establish a common operating picture,” DHS said. DHS’ Privacy Office said OPS/NOC uses GPS and geographic location features offered through social media and mobile applications to enhance its search and reporting capabilities. “With the widespread use of online services and applications on mobile devices that are equipped with GPS, OPS is updating the Initiative PIA to address the privacy impact of the availability of geospatial functions within mobile media to enhance DHS situational awareness,” DHS said. Depending on the size of a search radius, OPS/NOC or the Media Monitoring Center (MMC) may inadvertently collect personally identifiable information, DHS said. To mitigate the risk OPS/NOC will redact PII if “collected inappropriately,” but DHS said the groups monitor only public sites where users post information voluntarily.