Secret Service Solicits Software To Detect ‘Sarcasm’ By Soci

June 3, 2014 by Ben Bullard

The Secret Service believes it can develop software to help it determine when you’re being a smart aleck on social media. Why that’s important to the Secret Service, though, is a question no computer can answer.

According to Nextgov, the Secret Service is soliciting bids for proprietary software development that will enable the agency to eye not only the content of social media posts, but – the Feds hope – the intent of the people writing that content as well.

The product is being developed for use by the Secret Service Office of Government and Public Affairs.

In a work order posted on Monday, the agency details information the tool will collect – ranging from emotions of Internet users to old Twitter messages.

Its capabilities will include “sentiment analysis,” “influencer identification,” “access to historical Twitter data,” “ability to detect sarcasm,” and “heat maps” or graphics showing user trends by color intensity, agency officials said.

In addition, the software would be capable of sending out messages of its own, though the work order isn’t specific enough to ascertain whether that’s an automated function (as many of the software’s features evidently are designed to be) or a feature that can be tailored for use by an individual investigator.