Dear Spencer

We acknowledge receipt of your request.

This request has been treated as a request for official information under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (the Act) and has been referred to Council's Manager – Information Services and Business Improvement for action.

Please note: Section 13(1A) of the Act provides that a local authority may charge for the supply of official information. The Ministry of Justice charging guidelines state that time spent by staff searching for relevant material, abstracting, collating, copying, transcribing and supervision access where the total time involved is more than one hour, should be charged out at an initial charge of $38 for the first chargeable half hour or part thereof; and then $38 for each additional half hour or part thereof.

Should there be any cost associated with the provision of the information you have requested, you will be notified of the amount and payment will be required prior to release of the information, otherwise, you will receive a response within 20 working days of receipt of your request.

Regards

Adrian Lindsay | Legal Officer
Waitomo District Council | Kaunihera â-rohe
15 Queen Street, Te Kuiti 3910
PO Box 404, Te Kuiti 3941
Phone 07 878 0800 | Fax: 07 878 7771 |[mobile number]|DDI: 07 878 0853
www.waitomo.govt.nz
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Waitomo - a vibrant district
-----Original Message-----
From: SPENCER JONES <[FOI #22551 email]>
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2023 8:05 PM
To: WebMail <[email address]>
Subject: Official Information request - Social Media Monitoring & Social Media Intelligence

April 24rd, 2023

Dear New Waitomo District Council (WDC),

I am writing to request all information to which I am entitled under section 12 of the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) (The Act). This information is sought in the public interest of all New Zealanders.

Please find below my OIA request, which relates to WDC's Social media monitoring / social media intelligence.

1. Please provide copies of any internal audits for the past 3 years relating to social media; (confirm if you have not conducted an internal audit).

2. Provide a copy of WDC or local government policy on the use of social media in investigations. (Please confirm if you do not have one).

3. Please confirm whether any follow up audits have been conducted on WDC by any organisation with regards to social media monitoring / social media intelligence.

4. As our Local Authority do you conduct overt and/or covert social media intelligence in some or all of your work.
(a). If yes, please specify whether this includes profiling individuals, conducting investigations, monitoring individuals, monitoring groups, monitoring locations, gathering intelligence, for recruitment purposes.
(b) If you do conduct social media intelligence/monitoring, please specify whether this includes both or either overt or covert monitoring of social media.
(c) If you have conducted covert social media monitoring, please confirm the number of warrants obtained in the last three years for this purpose.

5. Please provide a copy of any current guidance/policies/internal guidance/code of practice or any other such written material used by/available to the local authority or those working on behalf of the local authority to conduct SOCMINT, the monitoring or accessing of information published on social media that is either publicly available or requires additional access e.g. to be friends with an individual, to have password and login details.

6. If you conduct overt or covert social media intelligence relating to social media platforms, please provide a copy of:
(a) Relevant [sections of the] privacy policy.
(b) the data protection impact assessment.
(c) privacy impact assessment.
(d) equality and human rights impact assessment
(e) training materials for those conducting social media intelligence.
Please state if you do not have any of the above.

7. Please provide a copy of any other template/form/document currently used (or to be used with the next three months) by WDC as our local authority or fraud investigator (or team) in the conduct of social media monitoring.

8. Please confirm whether or not WDC as our local authority has purchased or uses software and/or hardware to conduct social network / social media monitoring and/or in relation to sentiment analysis.
(a) If yes, please state the name of the company / provider.
(b) If no, please state whether the local authority has developed internal methods to conduct social media / social network monitoring.

9. Please confirm, if not stated in the guidance (question 5), the policy on deletion of data obtained from social networking sites.

10. If no documents (question 5) exist, or if the following is not covered in the documents which do exist, please explain:
a. In what areas of WDC as the local authority work is social media monitoring used.
b. What criteria must be satisfied in order for social media monitoring to be carried out.
c. Who must authorise the request to conduct social media monitoring.
d. What is the process for conducting social media monitoring e. How long is data collected and retained.
f. Is there any process for requesting deletion.

11. Are you able to state how regularly social media monitoring is used? If so, please provide the figures for the past three years.

Kind regards,

Spencer Jones

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This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #22551 email]

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hide quoted sections

Dear Spencer

 

Please see our response in red to your request:

 

1. Please provide copies of any internal audits for the past 3 years
relating to social media; (confirm if you have not conducted an internal
audit). No internal audit has been conducted.

 

2. Provide a copy of WDC or local government policy on the use of social
media in investigations. (Please confirm if you do not have one). WDC
currently does not currently have one. However, this is something that has
been noted that needs to be progressed in the short term.

 

3. Please confirm whether any follow up audits have been conducted on WDC
by any organisation with regards to social media monitoring / social media
intelligence. NA

 

4. As our Local Authority do you conduct overt and/or covert social media
intelligence in some or all of your work. No.

(a). If yes, please specify whether this includes profiling individuals,
conducting investigations, monitoring individuals, monitoring groups,
monitoring locations, gathering intelligence, for recruitment purposes.

(b) If you do conduct social media intelligence/monitoring, please specify
whether this includes both or either overt or covert monitoring of social
media.

(c) If you have conducted covert social media monitoring, please confirm
the number of warrants obtained in the last three years for this purpose.

 

5. Please provide a copy of any current guidance/policies/internal
guidance/code of practice or any other such written material used
by/available to the local authority or those working on behalf of the
local authority to conduct SOCMINT, the monitoring or accessing of
information published on social media that is either publicly available or
requires additional access e.g. to be friends with an individual, to have
password and login details. None / NA.

 

6. If you conduct overt or covert social media intelligence relating to
social media platforms, please provide a copy of:

(a) Relevant [sections of the] privacy policy.

(b) the data protection impact assessment.

(c) privacy impact assessment.

(d) equality and human rights impact assessment

(e) training materials for those conducting social media intelligence.

Please state if you do not have any of the above. None of the above

 

7. Please provide a copy of any other template/form/document currently
used (or to be used with the next three months) by WDC as our local
authority or fraud investigator (or team) in the conduct of social media
monitoring. NA.

 

8. Please confirm whether or not WDC as our local authority has purchased
or uses software and/or hardware to conduct social network / social media
monitoring and/or in relation to sentiment analysis.

(a) If yes, please state the name of the company / provider. No

(b) If no, please state whether the local authority has developed internal
methods to conduct social media / social network monitoring. In-house
monitoring of Council’s social media pages ,ie comments on Council’s
pages.

 

9. Please confirm, if not stated in the guidance (question 5), the policy
on deletion of data obtained from social networking sites. NA.

 

10. If no documents (question 5) exist, or if the following is not covered
in the documents which do exist, please explain:

a. In what areas of WDC as the local authority work is social media
monitoring used. In-house monitoring of Council’s social media pages ,ie
comments on Council’s pages.

b. What criteria must be satisfied in order for social media monitoring to
be carried out. Comments are made on Council’s social media pages.

c. Who must authorise the request to conduct social media monitoring.
Leader – Communications and Engagement, General Manager – Strategy and
Environment or the Chief Executive.

d. What is the process for conducting social media monitoring e. How long
is data collected and retained. Forever. Posts aren’t deleted.

f. Is there any process for requesting deletion. Not currently.

 

11. Are you able to state how regularly social media monitoring is used?
If so, please provide the figures for the past three years. Daily or a
follow up after a post is published.

 

We are now closing this LGOIMA request.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Adrian Lindsay​​​​  |  Legal Officer
Waitomo District Council | Kaunihera ā‑rohe
15 Queen Street, Te Kuiti 3910
PO Box 404, Te Kuiti 3941
Phone 07 878 0800 | Fax: 07 878 7771 | Mobile: 027 278 7139 | DDI: 07 878 0853
[1]www.waitomo.govt.nz | [2]Follow us on Facebook
Waitomo ‑ a vibrant district 
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