US govt using social networks to spy on citizens?

Washington, Oct 14 (ANI): Claims of the US government using social networks to spy on its citizens have emerged.

The claims were made after an Electronics Frontier Foundation freedom of information request uncovered a memo encouraging agents to try to befriend people on a variety of social networks.

Once they have been accepted, these agents take advantage of the user's readiness to share, and to also spy on them.

"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," Fox News quoted a memo obtained by Valleywag.

"This provides an excellent vantage point for FDNS to observe the daily life of beneficiaries and petitioners who are suspected of fraudulent activities," it stated.

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to the website, the EFF wrote that "this memo suggests there's nothing to prevent an exaggerated, harmless or even out-of-date off-hand comment in a status update from quickly becoming the subject of a full citizenship investigation".

Other websites EFF say the government is spying on include Twitter, MySpace, Craigslist and Wikipedia. (ANI)