How A Little Metadata Made It Possible To Find FBI Director James Comey's Secret Twitter Account

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the we-kill-based-on-metadata dept

Fri, Mar 31st 2017 6:41am — Mike Masnick

For a few years now, our intelligence overseers have been insisting that we shouldn't be too concerned about surveillance programs that collect "just metadata" because that doesn't really reveal too much. But, of course, we've shown how "just metadata" can ruin a career diplomat's life, and former NSA/CIA boss Michael Hayden has admitted that the US kills people based on metadata.

Either way, I find it fascinating that reporter Ashley Feinberg needed just a few small bits of innocent metadata from FBI Director James Comey to track down his secret Twitter account. It took her all of four hours or so. Just last night, Comey admitted that he was on Twitter, leading lots of people to go searching for the account since there is no official one. I won't describe all of how Feinberg tracked it down (it involves some pretty excellent sleuthing and is worth reading) but suffice it to say, it's metadata that gives Comey away. The account, @projectexile7, was then almost certainly confirmed as Comey's based on metadata about who was following it, who it was following, and what it liked:

But how to be sure? There is only one person currently following the account: Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare. Wittes is no Twitter neophyte. He is an active user with more than 25,000 followers, and he only follows 1,178 accounts—meaning he is not a subscriber to the “followback” philosophy. If he is following a random egg—and is the only account following it—there is probably a reason.

That reason could be the fact that, as Wittes wrote here, he is a personal friend of James Comey. (We’ve reached out to Wittes for comment but have yet to hear back.)

Project Exile happens to be a federal program that James Comey helped develop when he was a U.S. attorney living in Richmond. And then, of course, there are the follows.

ProjectExile7 follows 27 other accounts, the majority of which are either reporters, news outlets, or official government and law enforcement accounts. The New York Times' Adam Goldman and David Sanger and the Washington Post's Ellen Nakashima and David Ignatius, all of whom have been aggressively covering the FBI investigation into Trump’s contacts with Russian agents, made the list, as did Wittes and former Bush Administration colleague Jack Goldsmith. Donald Trump is on there, too, but @projectexile7 seems to have begun following him relatively recently (its first follow was @nytimes).

There are two outliers: William & Mary News (where Comey attended undergrad) and our colleagues at The Onion (everyone deserves to have fun)

And, yes, I do find it hilarious that Ben Wittes — among the loudest cheerleaders for programs that scoop up metadata — is part of the reason the account was recognized as Comey's.

Go read the full article by Feinberg. Of course, I doubt it will change Comey's views on "just metadata", but it is yet another representation of how powerful a little bit of such data can be in tracking someone down.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: ashley feinberg, fbi, james comey, metadata, privacy, secrecy
Companies: instagram, twitter

24 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

DannyB (profile), 31 Mar 2017 @ 7:03am

But it's "only" metadata
Google for "Paul Revere metadata" to find multiple descriptions of how Paul Revere could have been caught if the British collected metadata.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2017 @ 7:03am

If metadata wasn't useful they would not be collecting it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ninja (profile), 31 Mar 2017 @ 7:11am

Can we please build some metadata network that links Comey to some meth lab or some terrorist cell? This would help drive the 'just metadata' point home. I'm sure you could link him to something obscure if you torture the metadata enough.

And maybe yank any credibility some people may be giving to the backdooring thing.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2017 @ 7:37am

An apple is not an orange
Data storage admins will tell you what meta data is. It's not someone's phone number or ip address. Those are data. Some damn marketing person decided to use the word to describe something it isn't to get away with something they shouldn't. As usual.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Capt ICE Enforcer, 31 Mar 2017 @ 7:44am

Job application
And that my friends is how you can apply for the NSA or CIA. Authorize the strike.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2017 @ 7:56am

Someone infringed upon James Comey? Oh, boy. My_Name_Here's not going to like this at all.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
David, 31 Mar 2017 @ 8:29am

Oh come on.

I doubt it will change Comey's views on "just metadata"

Look, the NSA wouldn't be gungho on collecting metadata if it didn't form the most processible information source for mass observation they have available.

Content is a lot harder to analyze and a lot more susceptible to obfuscation.

Does Google read through recommendations to give relevant search results? No. Their pagerank algorithm processes metadata, links, basically exclusively. And they basically obliterated all other search companies.

Now the NSA siphons off all the internet traffic it can and boils it down to metadata to generate its scores.

They are processing the same kind of data Google processes and turn it into lists of whose liberties and rights to tamper with. They are running computing centers the size of Google and processing the same thing:

Metadata.

They are spending billions on that, and have been doing so for decades on end.

"Just metadata" in the context of governmental data collection and processing is as harmless to personal liberties and privacies as "just an iceberg" was to the Titanic.

And who would know better than Comey? Metadata is the elephant in the room, and "just Metadata" Comey is hiding it by putting it on a pedestal with a plaque "Just an elephant". So people think of it like a curiosity instead a live beast that is likely to gore and trample them all.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
DannyB (profile), 31 Mar 2017 @ 8:35am

Re: An apple is not an orange
What!?!! Are you saying my birthdate, address, phone and ssn are not meta data?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2017 @ 8:54am

Re: An apple is not an orange
Actually the definition of "metadata" is very ill-defined in many jurisdictions and contexts, so theoretically, those data would be percieved as such by term.expand.infinit proponents.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2017 @ 9:00am

so much for the 'but it's only meta data! we cant get any info about you from that!'
everyone knew it was a bullshit statement all those months ago, now it's been proven, what excuse is gonna come now for the lies, especially from Trump? never come across anyone so full of themselves (and crap!) in my life!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2017 @ 9:19am

Now if we could just figure out how to put Comey, and all of the rest of them, in prison with metadata too.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
JoeCool (profile), 31 Mar 2017 @ 9:45am

Re:
You're dreaming. They can't put them in prison even with a 6700 page report full of detailed EVIDENCE of breaking national and international law. If they can't put anyone away with that, "mere" meta-data is going to do exactly jack and squat, and I'm not sure about the jack.

Disclaimer: the above only applies to people in power (be it politician or financial). Peons are covered by an entirely different standard.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
David, 31 Mar 2017 @ 10:06am

Re:
It ain't a crime when the big people be doing it to the little people.

Government officials don't go to prison if they commit crimes falling in the general area of their job description against ordinary citizens. Never, ever. Not in the U.S.A.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2017 @ 10:21am

Re:
Well, I wouldn't go that far; lots of things get done with government money that aren't useful.

But the argument they were making for metadata was that it didn't violate anyone's privacy, and only provided useful information/warnings in aggregate; this is something that has never rung true for data privacy analysts.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2017 @ 10:34am

Obey me!
Do as I say, not as I do peasants!

Now get back to work browsing Facebook, Twitter, and Google. I need more metadata to feed my next company as an "advisor".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
sigalrm (profile), 31 Mar 2017 @ 10:37am

Re: Re:
That's because 6700 pages is way to long.

If you can't describe it with a sound bite, a tweet, or a meme, you've just exceeded the maximum attention span of anyone in a position to make a difference.

The attention span _can_ be increased in select cases, but it requires large volumes of off-books compensation.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2017 @ 11:08am

Re:
What I am interested in seeing would be a crowd funded push to buy the "metadata" from a Washington ISP. Then let people dig through and see what they find. The ISP couldn't sell a single persons internet data, but they could sell the "metadata" of an area unless I misunderstand something.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
D.C. Pathogen (profile), 31 Mar 2017 @ 12:18pm

For Sale.....
How long before a hacker or an disgruntled NSA employee makes the 'metadata' available on the dark web?

How long before the Advertising lobbyists get a law passed requiring the government to share collected 'metadata' for a fat campaign contribution?

Subscribe to everything, then you can say - 'O, i just subscribe to everything'.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2017 @ 12:48pm

Cue the FBI calling for laws preventing doxing of federal officials while simultaneously expanding surveillance powers on everyone else.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Rekrul, 31 Mar 2017 @ 3:04pm

Personally, I find it amusing and a little sad that today you can use the word "only" in a serious context when referring to someone following 1,178 online accounts.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TomStone (profile), 31 Mar 2017 @ 3:45pm

Comey's metadata
And they told me it was irrational to be terrified by clowns?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
pixelpusher220 (profile), 31 Mar 2017 @ 6:19pm

Re: Re:
"Well, I wouldn't go that far; lots of things get done with government money that aren't useful."

aren't useful *right now*

FTFY
[ link to this | view in thread ]
William Bixby, 1 Apr 2017 @ 5:24am

Noah? I only just meta!!
No doubt, Will Rogers never metadata he didn't like.

“A fool and his money are soon elected.”

“I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”

“If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of Congress?”

“The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.”
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Apr 2017 @ 5:49pm

So, James Comey has something to hide. He must be a terrorist.
[ link to this | view in thread ]