DHS using social media to check for marriage fraud (The Hill)

DHS using social media to check for marriage fraud
By Gautham Nagesh - 10/15/10 05:00 PM ET

The Department of Homeland Security used social networking to determine whether applicants for citizenship are guilty of entering into "green card marriages."

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by the advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation show immigration agents were instructed on how to "friend" applicants for citizenship on social networks such as Facebook in order to observe their lives and determine if their marriages are in fact valid.

"Narcissistic tendencies in many people fuels a need to have a large group of 'friends' link to their pages and many of these people accept cyber-friends that they don’t even know," the memo states. "This provides an excellent vantage point for [the Office of Fraud Detection and National Security] to observe the daily life of beneficiaries and petitioners who are suspected of fraudulent activities."

EFF argues that while the government's actions are legal, they do raise some concerns. Because it isn't clear that agents must reveal their identities or jobs when friending users, it is possible agents may monitor more users than just the applicant for immigration. The group also criticized the memo's characterization of social networking users.

"First the memo engages in armchair psychology by assuming a large friend network indicates 'narcissistic tendencies.' Second, and perhaps more disturbing, the memo assumes a user’s online profile always accurately reflects her offline life," writes EFF staff attorney Jennifer Lynch.

"Unfortunately, this memo suggests there’s nothing to prevent an exaggerated, harmless or even out-of-date off-hand comment in a status update from quickly becoming the subject of a full citizenship investigation."