After a Freedom of Information request, the Department of Homeland Security has released its list of keywords to monitor on websites and social networking sites, according to an article from the Global Post.
The list of keywords and phrases monitored to determine threats against the U.S. includes the obvious choices – “attack,” “Al Qaeda,” “terrorism” and “dirty bomb.” But some more ambiguous search words were also mentioned, such as “pork,” “cloud,” “team” and “Mexico,” the article says.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed the FOIA request, and then sued to obtain the release of the documents, according to Forbes. They received 285 pages of records, according to the EPIC website.
This included a list of websites to monitor, such as Wired, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Drudge Report, The Huffington Post and ABC News, especially to judge the contents of the comment sections and blog posts, EPIC reports.
According to the article, the list provides new insight into how government analysts monitor the Internet for terrorist threats, but it does not explain how the agency has access to that information on search engines and social networking sites.