Will posts on public forums be found in an investgation?
Just Always wondered since People use it as a joke they Will see your internet history but is it actually possible to find Old posts?
You may have heard about this new concept of “Continuous Investigation” or something like that. The idea is that they do a lot of things to monitor cleared people on a continuous basis rather than just waiting til the five or ten year update.
I suppose “social media” could be part of that. Anyone else have details on this? I think maybe they are more concerned with financial problems that come up, but there’s a lot of talk about the “insider threat” and “crisis of conscience” and I wonder if security types might think that social media might be a good way to monitor such threats.
But I have no idea how this might apply to an investigation underway right now.
Congress allowed social media to be part of the investigation process after the Snowden incident.
Yes, the background investigation will include a review of social media. How is that helpful to the investigator? The process develops issue leads – such as the unreported foreign travel or associations you have on your facebook/instagram - or the membership to the anti-government private militia website. Just for an example.
BTW - people really do these things on their social media. Public domain means public information.
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I completely understand that. Reviewing social media might be more insightful these days than ever before.
In that regard one question: My social media has over the last months started to feel useless and be nothing but a time killer and I several times was on the edge of deleting it altogether, but then always didn’t because of the ability to communicate with friends I do not see often.
Now that I am in the process of the investigation, I feel that if I deleted it now, it would cause more suspicions and therefore delay to my clearance investigation, so it would be better not to do it, correct? There is nothing there that would be a disaster for anyone to find, I have no reason to hide anything, but I would just rather be down with it. But of course I would not do anything if it slowed down the process even more. Any advice ?
Anything public on social media will probably be looked at. As well as forums? Maybe if it comes up in a google search of your name. Otherwise I wouldn’t worry about any of it, unless you’re trying to hide something.
I wouldn’t lose sleep over the social media search unless you misled or hid behavior/contacts from your investigation.
@backgdinvestigator
Thank you for your reply. I am quoting now from another post I made here regarding the same issue.
Green Card Holder, enlisted in the military.
No issues from my past, law, credit, drugs, visa.
No difficult content on my social media either. However, I have social media that lists hundreds of foreign contacts from my country that I still have citizenship of.
The reason: I have had this social media already for years (!) before I even entered the USA. So I am talking about a few hundred acquaintances. They are NOT all my close friends. There are many who I NEVER conversed with, some who I once a year chat for five minutes with and very few who I am more in touch with.
But it would be impossible to list them all. I assume that is a no go then ? Oddly enough, that did not come up at all during my interview.
I was already considering deleting all social media now, but I am not sure if that is a smart move, being in the investigation. Instead I started unfriending people who i have no or hardly any relationship with plus the sporadic private chat conversation I had with them.
But I guess that was wrong as well ? Is it then safe to assume that I can not get cleared ? Should I reach out to my investigator? (The person I had an interview with)
What is the best course of action?
Thank you for your help! I am very new to this process.
I really can’t answer this for you.
If I were your investigator, I would tell you to report every foreign contact - the fact they are on your social media and you know they are not US citizens means you have continuing contact with foreign nationals. Social media can also be argued to be close contact because you choose who is on your social media.
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Will they find Old Emails and Facebook accounts?
Got some embarassing youtube videos from When i was a kid…
I can’t imagine that they will find old emails . . . or, OLD Facebook accounts . . . Embarrassing YouTube videos? Are we talking about you running around naked as a kid? Or, running around naked in college?
Ed is right… there is a difference.
The investigator can’t subpoena emails or phone records, and you’re not going to get wire tapped. This isn’t a criminal investigation.
They can see any social media that’s public, i.e. any social media anyone else can see. They can also get employment records, tax history, education records, financial/credit history, and arrest records. They can talk to people about you.