Social media checks will be incorporated into federal background investigative authority for security clearance holders, intelligence leaders said.

“Social media has become an integral — and very public — part of the fabric of most American’s daily lives,” Bill Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in a statement issued on Friday. “We cannot afford to ignore this important open source in our effort to safeguard our secrets — and our nation’s security.”