
Careful what you tweet: Police, schools tap social media to track behavior - Libertatea
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/careful-what-you-tweet-police-schools-tap-social-media-track-4B11215908
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DerpDerpDerp
So if the police were to station people in every public space, ie every
sidewalk, every park, every public accommodation (cafes, public spaces in
hotels, lobbies at convention centers, etc), listening to every conversation
happening because they wanted to track behavior of the public, we would find
this deeply unsettling and invasive, nevermind a school district doing it for
"the good of the children".

Why is it okay on the internet?

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greenyoda
I don't like the idea of police spying on social media either, but I think
your analogy is flawed.

If I'm talking to somebody in a public space, I'm generally expecting the
conversation to be private. If a cop were listening in to that conversation,
it would be unexpected, and that would be analogous to the police reading my
e-mail (which I also expect to be private).

However, when I post a publicly readable message on Twitter or Facebook,
that's _not_ like having a private conversation in a public place. It's more
like standing up on a soapbox and shouting to anyone who can hear, and I'd
expect that any cop within earshot would be able to hear what I was saying.

Common sense dictates that if you do something illegal, you shouldn't shout it
out to the entire world.

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001sky
_If I 'm talking to somebody in a public space, I'm generally expecting the
conversation to be private_

No, not legally. You have no such reasonable expectation of privacy in public.
That is why This is not unconstitutional.

