Big Brother Really is Watching us Online
There was a time when most sane people would say a story like this is just pure paranoia. But not any more. Big Brother's minions really are scanning the Internet 24/7 -- watching everything you and I write in our emails and social media websites, including Facebook.
We know this because the government has admitted it. Not willingly of course.
The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.
This remarkable and intriguing list includes obvious choices such as 'attack', 'Al Qaeda', 'terrorism' and 'dirty bomb' alongside dozens of seemingly innocuous and innocent words like 'pork', 'cloud', 'team' and 'Mexico'.
The words are included in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder', which workers at the DHS National Operations Center use to identify 'media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities'.
The list has been posted online by the Electronic Privacy Information Center - a privacy watchdog group that filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act before filing a lawsuit to force DHS to release the documents.
Read the full story -- and see the complete list of "words to avoid using on the Internet" in the London Daily Mail Online:
Somewhere, George Carlin and George Orwell are saying "We told you so."
More From Newstalk 860
