Are you on their Radar? Check if you are on the government’s radar…
With the recent influx of legislation allowing warrantless wiretapping, and warrantless monitoring of our private telecommunications; I wanted to see if there was any way the average person could find out if they were being monitored. As it turns out there is, and there is whole slew of ways you find out if you’re on the government’s radar. And there might be ways you can remove you name and stay off the radar altogether.
Not too long after the “war on terror” began, the Office of Informational Awareness was created to monitor daily activities like ATM withdraws flight purchases among many other seemingly normal events. It wasn’t long after the Office of Informational Awareness IAO began to find other items they wanted to monitor, like the library books you check out, the movies you download or rent even if you have a bus pass or not.
The best way to find out for sure if you are being watched is to make an official open records request RCFP has an excellent guide on how to go about that: http://www.rcfp.org/open-government-guide
However the chances are that you or someone you know is being actively monitored. The most common method is to review any online postings and tapping your wireless phone calls. So watch what you put online particularly regarding travel details or anti-government action. If you’re worried your phone is tapped you can replace the SIM card fairly easily.
Next get a good idea of surveillance in your city, or neighborhood. According to the US Department of Transportation over 30% of US intersections are federally monitored and almost all large public transit systems are actively being monitored (http://www.itscosts.its.dot.gov).
(Captain Ken)
ThrashPunx 