This tracking software, which the [Seattle Polic Department] purchased in October 2014 from a CIA-funded company called Geofeedia, is designed to tell officers where you posted from and what you said. It can also show hundreds of other tweets, Instagrams, and other social media posts from anyone else in the vicinity, and then file all of that information into one big database.
The secret purchase of the Geofeedia software—for $14,125—violated a Seattle law requiring a city official outside of the police department to be notified of such acquisitions, the SPD admitted this week in response to questions from The Stranger. The secret use of the software may have also violated the city's 2013 surveillance ordinance, which requires "any City department intending to acquire surveillance equipment" to "obtain City Council approval." Read more from Ansel Herz at the Stranger