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15 Apr, 2014

Australian government cyber snoops scouring social media

Federal government departments are using increasingly powerful cyber-snooping equipment to monitor the social media lives of millions of Australians.

A dramatic public confrontation between the Immigration Department and a Sydney political activist over her Facebook page has resulted in accusations that mass-electronic surveillance is being used to keep tabs on political dissent.

Other large government departments including Centrelink, Defence and Social Services have done mass monitoring of social media activity.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) hires private sector contractors who can monitor more than half-a-billion ”pieces” of social media each day on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Flickr and blogs.

Read the rest: Government cyber snoops scouring social media.