# Social Media and Your Security Clearance



## AWP (May 29, 2016)

Investigators can use your publicly available social media content as part of the security clearance process, though their definition of "private" remains to be seen.

https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsr...ound-investigations-for-security-clearances-1



> Director of National Intelligence James Clapper yesterday signed Security Executive Agent Directive Five, codifying federal background investigative authority to incorporate publicly-available social-media information in the security clearance process.
> 
> The policy does not require security investigations consider social media information.  Instead, it permits the collection of publicly-available social-media information if an agency head determines it is an appropriate investigative tool.
> 
> Absent a national security concern, or criminal reporting requirement, information pertaining to individuals other than the individual being investigated—even information collected inadvertently—will not be pursued.  In addition, investigators may not request—or require—individuals to provide social media passwords, log into a private account or take any action that would disclose non-publicly available social media information.


----------



## Kraut783 (May 29, 2016)

hell, even local PD's look at officers social media now.  There has been a huge uptake of defense attorneys looking at arresting officers social media for any advantage in court, talking about the case...etc.  It's a new world....

Many years ago I had a FB page to keep in contact with my daughter.  I would add friends as I went, my page was very vanilla....did not show any LEO or military affiliation.  Then some idiot friends of mine started to tag me in military or LEO pictures.  That was it....deleted my account and have no social media pages anymore.


----------



## CDG (May 29, 2016)

This and a LinkedIn account are the closest I have to social media and I have no plans to change that.  Way too easy for someone else to negatively effect you with social media.  Wrong person on your friends list, getting tagged on the wrong post, etc.


----------



## Florida173 (May 29, 2016)

Freefalling said:


> Investigators can use your publicly available social media content as part of the security clearance process, though their definition of "private" remains to be seen.
> 
> https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsr...ound-investigations-for-security-clearances-1



Most investigators don't even have a TS clearance.. I've not been impressed with any of the ones I've met.


----------



## policemedic (May 30, 2016)

Florida173 said:


> Most investigators don't even have a TS clearance.. I've not been impressed with any of the ones I've met.



My experience has been the opposite in both regards.


----------



## DocIllinois (May 30, 2016)

Florida173 said:


> Most investigators don't even have a TS clearance.. I've not been impressed with any of the ones I've met.



Go to usajobs.gov and type "FIS Investigator" into the search box.

An opening for an OPM FIS Investigator or Investigative Assistant will come up, at least until 6/8/2016.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and check out the level of security clearance required for either job.   I would be very surprised if this requirement changed for the NBIB.


----------



## Brill (May 30, 2016)

Florida173 said:


> Most investigators don't even have a TS clearance.. I've not been impressed with any of the ones I've met.



x10 on above. I assume it's because of the backlog and pressure to move things along but many are very "investigators" (contractors) are pretty shady.


----------



## Kraut783 (May 30, 2016)

All the background investigators I have had were all retired federal law enforcement, one was a retired CW4 CI Agent.


----------



## Dame (May 30, 2016)

I try to lock down my FB page pretty tight. They have a new feature which allows you to see your page as the public sees it. That's helped me take some things which were tagged public (default) to private.


----------



## Ooh-Rah (May 30, 2016)

In addition - updated feature allows you to "approve" before you can be publicly tagged in anything.


----------



## Florida173 (May 30, 2016)

Facebook can just sell all your info to any service that could in return provide for investigations. 

You could learn a lot about people by running some simple social network analytics on friends and followers.

I played around with my Facebook friends list with Organizational Risk Analyzer from Carnegie Mellon a couple of years back.

Twitter is even easier to run since the open api allows you to grab all tweets and friends/followers for free in something like json.


----------



## Raptor (May 30, 2016)

This thread is reminding me why I don't have a Facebook account.


----------



## Red Flag 1 (May 30, 2016)

I have a facebook accoun

.


Raptor said:


> This thread is reminding me why I don't have a Facebook account.



My daughter thought she would bring me out of the Stone Age, and hook me into Facebook; complete with a picture in uniform. I thanked her, and set to work deconstructing myself, including the picture. I have kept the account so I could read stuff. I did get hooked up with some of the folks I was in USAFE with, via email. For me, it is a read only site; I did not see too much risk in that.


----------



## policemedic (May 30, 2016)

My agency screens social media during backgrounds. It's pretty common, and likely to become industry standard. 

Don't post subversive or criminal shit and it shouldn't be a problem.  

One caveat--watch who you put on your friend list.


----------



## racing_kitty (May 30, 2016)

I keep my friend list locked down from view. My friends can only see who we're mutually acquainted with unless I choose by name to open the whole thing. I'm sure agencies have their ways around it, but I don't have to make it easy.


----------



## SpongeBob*24 (May 30, 2016)

Oh wow I'm screwed....might as well kiss my FOUO clearance goodbye...:wall:


----------



## Dame (May 30, 2016)

policemedic said:


> One caveat--watch who you put on your friend list.



True story. We were informed that if we had any "foreign" friends on FB and did not declare them, we'd look suspicious. I placed that in quotes because I caught myself saying things like, "But he's not a foreigner. He's Canadian!" :wall:


----------



## policemedic (May 30, 2016)

Dame said:


> True story. We were informed that if we had any "foreign" friends on FB and did not declare them, we'd look suspicious. I placed that in quotes because I caught myself saying things like, "But he's not a foreigner. He's Canadian!" :wall:



Everyone loves Canadians.  And our beer and bacon.


----------

