Mid-day Extra: Jonathan Zittrain on Fed’s plan to monitor Twitter, blogs

Reports are surfacing that say the Federal Reserve Bank of New York wants to use data from Facebook, Twitter, the blogosphere and mainstream news outlets to better understand its public perception.

All the things and policies the Fed deliberates and decides may seem far removed from everyday Americans.

It’s enough to make one wonder — will Ben Bernanke soon be “friending” you and I?

Some blogs immediately jumped at the news, seeing the move as an invasion of privacy on the part of a government organization.

At the same time, private companies and political figures have already been doing the same kind of analysis for a while now.

We went to Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard professor and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, about what this really could mean for privacy, for the Fed, and for the economy.

It turns out, we probably don’t need to be worried — yet.