Social media intelligence: The national security–privacy nexus

Abstract

Globally, changes in technology have always shaped the intelligence collection environment. South Africa is no exception. The emergence of satellite imagery had a significant influence on geographic intelligence (GEOINT) capabilities and, similarly, the emergence of the telegram and later the telephone had an equally significant effect on the signals intelligence (SIGINT) environment. With communications being revolutionised by mobile technology, such as recording, geo-positioning and photography, collection and distribution are ubiquitous. Smart mobile communication technology is also the driver of social media everywhere – at all ages, for state and non-state purposes, non-stop. More recently, social media intelligence (SOCMINT) became a key content domain for exploitation by the intelligence community. Examples of the successful exploitation of SOCMINT can be found internationally. It would be surprising if South Africa is not yet a statistic in terms of this phenomenon. Initially, many organisations viewed (and some still do) SOCMINT as an open-source intelligence (OSINT) tool. However, when considering the South African (SA) intelligence landscape, the concepts ‘democracy’, ‘transparency’ and ‘intelligence oversight’ are calibrating factors to bear in mind. It is also important to consider the influence of the national legislative framework governing the use of SOCMINT in South Africa. It then becomes clear that issues – such as the right to privacy – mean that SOCMINT is probably no longer covered by the scope of the OSINT definition and that intelligence organisations collecting social media content and producing SOCMINT should adhere to the legislative framework governing the collection and use of social media content and the production of SOCMINT. This article argues that SOCMINT and OSINT should be separate collection domains to protect the imperative of the right to privacy and national security requirements in a balanced manner by means of unambiguous national regulation in the interest of all citizens.