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Anything sent or posted from a smartphone comes with GPS coordinates. I would expect the database to associate smart phone ownership with other social media accounts so anything posted from anywhere would be associated with the user's GPS coordinates. "The program uses the archived databases to identify "influential posters" and posting trends, according to the company's website. The program can also track the location of posters and map their movements."
Every user agreement for anything you use to communicate gives the provider permission to do this stuff. It's the back-door surveillance state and you've already agreed to it. The only way to escape this now is to go off-grid.
What really surprised me was how cheap the service is. $17,000 annually for the City of Lowell? Peanuts. Tells you how much business this company must be doing and how automated their product is.
You are absolutely correct. Most people assume that because they set their FB, or whatever account to private, that "no one" can see where they are, or what they post. That only holds true for regular users of a particular site. I wouldn't be at all surprised if NES, or other "gun" related sites aren't added into their filtering stream. It just comes down to either staying off the grid completely if you are concerned about any of this, or be sensible in what you post online - period. It sucks that the 1st amendment really doesn't extend into the interwebs anymore, but that ship seems to have sailed...