Micron Associates, Feeling social? If so, feds could be watching

Big Brother is watching you — on just about every social-media platform you can imagine. Tweets, public Facebook posts and YouTube videos could soon be subject to round-the-clock scrutiny by the federal government, a procurement document posted this week by Public Works and Government Services Canada suggests. Welcome to media monitoring in the 21st century, when simply leafing through a stack of newspapers in the morning is about as antiquated as, well, newspapers.

The federal government is seeking a firm that "continuously monitors social media content on a daily basis in near real time and (can) provide web-based, online media metrics and reporting capabilities." That includes combing through "blogs, micro-blogs, social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter, forums and message boards, traditional news websites and comment sections, media sharing websites (videos, photos and user-generated content websites including YouTube)."

The contractor is also being asked to keep tabs on English- and French-language Internet news sites and blogs. The document specifies that the contractor must be able to provide the service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Part of the job will be to gauge the sentiment and tone of posts and to determine their reach.

Source: Micron Associates