Practical, legal, and ethical considerations

摘要

Using data posted on social media sites by service personnel and, in particular, their families, poses a number of practical, legal, and ethical challenges for open-source analysts. The first is the protection of the source. If the source of the intelligence on a particular vessel's movements is publicly identified, it could compromise the flow of information. Even when the source is concealed in the public report, it is possible that the target could - through process of elimination - determine the source.