I would be curious to know whether Facebook, Twitter and Instagram knew Geofeedia was selling the data to the police and in general how much they regulate third parties that access their data.
I would be willing to bet that at least someone at Facebook and Twitter knew that this data was being sold to them and knew they were likely to use it for this purpose.
Although this data is all "public", it is still not convenient or in-line with their terms of service to access it en-masse, and in real time, for these types of purposes without an explicit agreement with them.
Personally, I would think that Facebook and Twitter only cancelled the contract with Geofeedia because the ACLU called them out so publicly.
Although this data is all "public", it is still not convenient or in-line with their terms of service to access it en-masse, and in real time, for these types of purposes without an explicit agreement with them.
Personally, I would think that Facebook and Twitter only cancelled the contract with Geofeedia because the ACLU called them out so publicly.