You are being followed: The business of social media surveillance
▻http://littlesis.org/news/2016/05/18/you-are-being-followed-the-business-of-social-media-surveillance
Started in 2011 by Phil Harris, a businessperson with stints at Priceline and Match.com, #Geofeedia allows users to target a geographic area on their computer and scoop up the public social media posts of everybody within the target range. The posts are harvested from the companies with which Geofeedia has patents, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, Yik Yak, Seno-Weibo, and others. In addition to targeting a geographical region, users can also use Geofeedia to search social media posts based on people and keywords.
[...] In addition to touting its utility for for marketers as well emergency first responders, Harris also said in a radio interview that Geofeedia specialized in monitoring social movements like the Arab Spring and anti-austerity protests in Greece. Company representatives also suggested that police testing out Geofeedia software use it to monitor protests in Ferguson, Missouri in November 2014. Another representative from the company confirmed to LittleSis that the software was used in 2014 and 2015 to monitor Black Lives Matter protests at the Mall of America, whose owner, Canada-based Triple Five Group, contracts with Geofeedia.