top of page
Search

Online Privacy – Fornite, OnlyFans, BabyCenter….

You’re not a criminal. You’re not a threat. You’re just a person expecting a baby, shopping for a stroller. Or a college kid blowing off steam on Fortnite. Or someone navigating a breakup on Tinder. But to the right software in the right hands, you’re a data point. A pattern. A potential target. And the scary part? You volunteered everything they needed to find you.

None of that should feel like it’s being monitored. But it is—more than you think.

In today’s always-connected world, the idea of “public” data feels harmless—until it’s not. Most of us assume our everyday online activity is private enough. After all, you’re not breaking any laws, you’re just living your life, right? Buying diapers, sharing memes, tracking your macros on a fitness app. Harmless stuff.

But what if all that information—your usernames, comments, photos, locations, likes, swipes, and searches—was quietly getting scooped up and stitched together into a digital file with your name on it? Not by a hacker, not by some shady data broker, but by a software tool used by government agencies to track people in real time?

That’s not fiction. That’s SocialNet, one of the most powerful tools you’ve never heard of, let’s break this down and look under the hood.

ShadowDragon is a U.S.-based software company that specializes in digital investigation tools with a strong emphasis on Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT). Founded in 2013 (or 2015, depending on the source) by Daniel Clemens—who originally launched it as a spinoff from his security consulting firm, Packet Ninjas—ShadowDragon has become a significant player in the field of online surveillance and threat intelligence.

Its mission is straightforward: provide investigative teams with tools to identify threats, track malicious actors, and uncover hidden connections across the internet. Their clients include law enforcement agencies, government offices, cybersecurity teams, and corporate security professionals.

Flagship Tools in the ShadowDragon Suite

The company offers several tools, each tailored to different facets of digital investigation:

  • Horizon™: A link analysis platform that taps into billions of OSINT records.

  • Horizon™ Identity: Designed to correlate fragmented online identities and build complete digital profiles.

  • Horizon™ Monitor: Offers monitoring and alerting functions to track subjects or emerging narratives in real-time.

  • MalNet: A visualization tool focused on malware infrastructure and relationships.

  • Spotter: Used for identity verification and deep investigative work.

But among all of ShadowDragon’s offerings, the most well-known and widely used is SocialNet.

What is SocialNet?

SocialNet is a powerful social media monitoring and investigation tool designed to map out online identities, associations, interests, and behaviors. It works by accepting basic identifiers—such as an email address, username, name, or phone number—and then searching across over 200 online platforms, including mainstream sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit, as well as niche communities like Bodybuilding.com, FetLife, Fortnite, OnlyFans, Duolingo, and even BabyCenter.

Once the data is gathered, SocialNet compiles it into visual maps that reveal:

  • Online identities and aliases

  • Social networks and relationships

  • Behavioral patterns and interests

  • Frequent locations and inferred movement trails

Who Uses It?

SocialNet is extensively used by:

  • U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), particularly Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)

  • The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

  • The Department of Defense

  • The Department of State

  • Local and state law enforcement agencies

  • Intelligence units and select nonprofit organizations

Internal government documents reviewed in recent investigations confirm the widespread use of SocialNet for everything from criminal investigations to protest monitoring.

Publicly Available Doesn’t Always Mean Innocuous

ShadowDragon maintains that its tools—SocialNet in particular—only access publicly available data. That means no hacking, no bypassing passwords, and no backend access to private servers. The scraping is done on surface-level content: public posts, bios, usernames, profile pictures, and location metadata.

But here’s where things get sticky.

While the data might be technically public, the scale, speed, and depth of aggregation SocialNet provides is what raises eyebrows. A recent investigation by 404 Media exposed just how detailed these digital dossiers can become—and how easily that data can be weaponized. By drawing invisible threads between otherwise innocent posts, SocialNet can infer routines, identify associates, and monitor entire communities in near real-time.

The Backlash: Ethics, Privacy, and Oversight

This kind of capability hasn’t gone under the radar. Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Mozilla Foundation, ACLU, and Digital Rights Watch have voiced growing concerns over:

  • Mass surveillance without informed consent

  • Monitoring of sensitive discussions (e.g., pregnancy forums, political activism)

  • Lack of transparency in how data is used and by whom

  • Misidentification risks that can lead to real-world consequences

  • Impact on marginalized communities and civil liberties

These groups argue that using OSINT tools at this level and scale—especially for tracking protesters, journalists, or activists—can bypass traditional legal safeguards and create a chilling effect on free speech and online behavior.

Several major platforms have also responded, stating that scraping data in this way violates their terms of service, though enforcement is often inconsistent or ineffective.

So, What Now?

ShadowDragon and SocialNet stand at the crossroads of technological innovation and ethical responsibility. On one hand, these tools offer real value to investigators chasing down cybercriminals, human traffickers, or foreign threat actors. On the other hand, their use in domestic surveillance and protest monitoring highlights the glaring lack of regulation and oversight in this space.

As digital lives continue to blend with our physical ones, the ability to scrape, map, and analyze public data en masse will only become more potent—and more controversial.

Whether these tools are a vital asset or a surveillance overreach depends heavily on how they’re used, who’s using them, and whether we as a society demand clearer boundaries.

Moz://a has an idea!

Sign Mozilla’s petition to demand websites and services like Etsy, Reddit, Tinder and Duolingo block ShadowDragon’s SocialNet, and protect our data from mass surveillance.

Comments

bottom of page