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==Legal considerations==

==Legal considerations==

Generally speaking, data analytics based on social media activity, are considered public information by most judges. Although users likely do not expect or intend their social media activity to be used in this way, the data is often publicly available, and therefore acceptable to use without a [[search warrant]], under US law.<ref>https://uslawexplained.com/osint</ref><ref>https://intellectsy.substack.com/p/the-fine-line-osint-legality-explained</ref>

Generally speaking, data analytics based on social media activity, are considered public information by most judges. Although users likely do not expect or intend their social media activity to be used in this way, the data is often publicly available, and therefore acceptable to use without a [[search warrant]], under US law.<ref>https://uslawexplained.com/osint</ref><ref>https://intellectsy.substack.com/p/the-fine-line-osint-legality-explained</ref><ref>https://owlintel.ai/resources/articles/social-media-investigations-osint-legal-guide/</ref>

Many social media platforms prohibit automated data collection (known as scraping) in their Terms of Service. By collecting these types of data about users, those terms of service are often being violated. This means that the social media platforms themselves might have grounds for a civil lawsuit, if they chose to pursue the matter. However, criminal law does not generally prohibit this data collection.<ref>https://sociavault.com/blog/social-media-scraping-complete-guide</ref>

==References==

==References==