An American-Swedish IT security startup called Recorded Future, which aggregates data in the public domain, has been scanning chats conducted on Facebook, according to the technology blog
Bosnadev Code Factory.
Recorded Future has purportedly received some of its financial backing from both Google Ventures and the CIA, according to Bosnadev.
The blog reported that in the course of testing an application, it tripped upon software code showing that Recorded Future was gathering Facebook chat data.
According to the technology site BDR, it is unsurprising that chats are being monitored since Facebook has long done so to prevent inappropriate or illegal use of its site. But, it said, some observers were taken aback to learn that an outside firm such as Recorded Future is capable of raking in chat data.
"Obviously, it's one thing to have Facebook scan your chats for preventing criminal activity, something the social network has been doing for years, and something entirely different to have a third party doing the same thing," according to BGR.
Recorded Future automatically collects and collates data available on some 650,000 public website "to identify actors, new vulnerabilities, and emerging threat indicators." The company also offers advance warning against cyberthreats, according to its website.
The firm, commissioned by
Sky News, was the source of the report that the number of tweets mentioning the Islamic State group had grown exponentially and that ISIS was talked about more often in Arabic than in English.
Recorded Future was founded in 2009 with offices in the U.S. and Sweden.
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