Social Media Apps Make it Easy for Big Brother to Spy on Citizens

BY MICHAEL CAHILL

CIA admits new technologies are aiding its efforts

At a press conference earlier this month General David Petraeus, director of the CIA, said that the CIA is now employing sophisticated new spying techniques.

These techniques could allow them to spy on you by hacking into your apps, your Netflix account or simply watching your Facebook page. The new wired world has people essentially bugging themselves. An interested spy agency could access your smart phone apps and use that data to get a fix on you.

According to an article in Wired Magazine, all these new technologies make you easier to track, and easier to get information about. The article talks about the new Facebook Timeline, which makes it easy for anyone to assemble a real history of your online life.

It used to be that those persons of interest to the intelligence community were bugged with physical devices. Now though, an intelligence organization can intercept your conversation and location data in real time just by manipulating your apps.

The legal grounds for the CIA spying on American soil are iffy. It is only the FBI that can legally spy on American citizens in the country. But gathering information, especially location data, is a grayer area for the CIA. The 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed by former President Bush made this information gathering easier.

This, according to decorated army veteran, Les Rayburn, is not a good thing. Rayburn is a 35-year combat veteran who has served in every conflict since Vietnam, including both Gulf Wars. He has seen it all, so when he is worried about something then you should be paying attention.

What concerns Rayburn the most is how Petraeus said it. “He just came right out and said it. Why tell people that you’re spying on them like that? You have to ask yourself,” said Rayburn.

Rayburn says that the CIA is looking for dissidents, and is tracking those who speak out against the establishment. “Five years ago I would never have thought this would be going on,” he said.

From the relative safety of Facebook and the blogosphere Rayburn comments on hot button issues that he is concerned about. Often his remarks cut right to the chase, foregoing the political correctness that has come to grip the establishment in recent years. Rayburn has even earned his fair share of threats and has no doubt that he is a target of this spying program. He says he is not anti government, but is just deeply concerned about the state of things in the country.

  cia, les rayburn, rockland county, social media, spying