Eric Dively 
A laptop with the NSA’s emblem in Google's logo represents an alliance between the two. (Photo by Eric Dively/TruthPub)
Similar to the children’s game, iSpy something unconstitutional! The CIA isn’t the only one spying on innocent citizens anymore. ISpy has become a big brother game as the whole intelligence community snoops now. This is no game though. The National Security Agency (NSA) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) participate. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) are in too. They and other government agencies use surveillance on social media websites to steal the personal information of U.S. civilians. Even the United States Postal Service (USPS) is spying on American citizens. Government is using other spying tactics as well. The Patriot Act made this possible in October 2001. Here is the executive order.
There have been many court cases attempting to reinstate our civil liberties. One entity that seems to be trying to fight for these rights is the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF). With the assistance from UC Berkeley Samuelson Clinic, EEF was able to file a case to release documents. They did this through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Some of the files that have already been released include a 2009 IRS training course. It describes how to use different internet tools to investigate taxpayers. Justice Department documents include a presentation titled “Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites”. Twitter, Google, MySpace, YouTube and PayPal are some of the websites that are targeted by government organizations but there are more. This particular presentation says that Facebook was often accommodating. The EEF site states that it will post more files as they come in.
One of the principal operators of these newfound powers has been the NSA. It has cornered the market with regard to spying on its own citizens. The new toy is XKeyscore. It collects nearly everything a user does on the internet. This allows the NSA to sweep emails, social media activity and browsing history. The agency doesn’t even get authorization for these searches. Edward Snowden spoke about XKeyscore. He said that he could read anyone’s emails if he simply just had the email address.
