What you do on social networking sites will now not be a secret from cops. Every post that you put on the public domain (not your personal mail) on social networking sites can now be accessed by cops. Officially, however, cops are saying it's a bid to understand trends among the youth who are active on the social media.
Mumbai Police on Saturday inaugurated its Social Media Lab (SML), which has been formed with "a view to keeping tabs on social media to be better informed about current public opinion". The first of its kind in the country, the SML is aimed at better intelligence gathering as social media are today the fastest form of media, the officials said. The lab, which consists of 20 specially trained policemen, will work in shifts and will scroll through the content that appears on social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook.
Users of social media, however, are not happy with what cops are doing. "It's an infringement of privacy. Why should a police officer know about my private chat with a friend?" asked Moni Singh, a resident of Chembur. Aparna Nadkar questioned how cops would differentiate between "trends" and private messages. "How is my personal interaction with a friend important for cops to study social trends?" she asked.
"It's important to know what people are saying, which will be helpful in understanding what people think. This will help us in maintain law and order," said police chief Satya Pal Singh. The inauguration was attended by Rajan Luthra from Reliance Foundation, Rajiv Vaishnav, V-P, Nasscomm, cyber expert Vijay Mukhi and actor Abhishek Bachchan.