- They're watching you! (cackles)
Oh, wait, this isn't a creepy video.
In a lot of ways, the government can be a great thing.
It provides social structures and safety nets for us.
However, there is no doubt that, through the years,
there have been abuses of power.
Sometimes, this involves watching the general population
to see what we are doing and even thinking.
You could be a criminal mastermind,
but more likely you're just sitting in your underwear,
watching Netflix, or me, thanks.
In any event, let's find out exactly how
the government is watching you. (cackles)
(electronic whirring)
Here are 10 ways the government is spying on you.
(soft music)
Number 10 is a pacemaker.
(eerie music)
Okay, this might only apply to the older people,
but just stick with me.
Do you remember Dick Cheney?
He was the vice president of the United States back in 2007.
In 2007, Dick Cheney had a pacemaker
installed with wifi connection.
This was supposed to be used to monitor his heart,
but they quickly realized it could be used
by some criminal to hack his pacemaker
and stop it from beating.
There are a lot of rumors that there are now
similar pacemakers in the general population,
and that anyone can access them with wireless data.
This includes the government.
They could control your heart rate
or find out all manner of information about you,
including you medical state, and even when you eat too much
and what restaurants you got to,
even when you get the meat sweats.
Number nine is RFID technology.
(eerie music)
You might know RFID technology better as contact lists.
Every time you use your credit card or bank card
or even your phone to pay for something,
a little chip inside of it sends out
data to the card reader.
These chips are also present in some passports.
On numerous occasions,
the government has tracked down people
that they want to arrest through this technology.
Every single time you swipe your card
or use contactless payment, the government has the ability
to check where the card was used
and immediately deploy its agents in that area.
Of course, this has been used
to apprehend criminals on the run
and save many lives, but it's also a way to know
where the average citizen is and what they're doing.
Yeah, I see you ordering
that adult movie and those Twinkies.
What you got goin' on, fool?
That's right, it also means that they know
exactly what you're buying,
so be careful when you in one of those naughty shops
ordering Twinkies and candy.
That's it.
I wasn't talkin' about nothin' else, what?
Number eight is medical data.
(eerie music)
If there's one thing that most of us believe,
it's that the government cannot access your medical data.
It's kind of like lawyer-client confidentiality.
Nothing can break through the doctor-patient relationship.
Except, that is completely wrong.
Government agencies can access
your medical data at any time.
This means that they can see what medications you're on
and what health issues may be a problem for you.
For the conspiratorially-minded,
you might worry that this information
could be used by the government in unscrupulous ways.
If this doesn't worry you, then maybe the fact
that private companies also have access to your medical data
under certain agreements will.
But don't ever let that stop you
from going to the doctor about something.
I doubt the government is concerned
that you pulled your back by helping your neighbor move,
or that you got that thing stuck in that area.
Nobody's judging.
Number seven is pen movement.
(eerie music)
Fake spy gadgets that you can buy online
are just for fun, aren't they?
Not really.
Some of the same technology in these gadgets
can be used in sinister ways
by governments from around the world.
Because the internet and connected devices
are so easily monitored,
some resort to good old-fashioned pen and paper
to write down sensitive information.
But, you guessed it, the government
can actually access this information
and gather it if they have implemented
a motion tracking chip inside the pen,
just like the writing pen gadgets widely available.
When you write, the pen secretly records motion
and therefore words you have written.
All a government agents has to do after this
is get their hands on the pen,
download the recorded information,
and you wouldn't even know.
From now on, I'm writing all my shopping lists with chalk.
They can't hack chalk, can they?
Number six are financial transactions.
(eerie music)
Remember Al Capone, the famous gangster
who ruled a large criminal empire
under the noses of the federal government
in the early half of the 20th century?
They tried everything to put Al Capone away,
but all that they ended up getting him for
in the end was tax evasion.
See, back then, in order for the government
to snoop on all your financial data,
they had to get their hands on your accounting books.
That's what Elliot Ness had to do to take Capone down.
Go watch The Untouchables if you haven't.
It's a fantastic movie.
Anyway, these days, the government
doesn't need to read all your accounting books.
All of your financial data is recorded electronically
by whoever you bank with.
As physical cash becomes less useful,
governments can look at your financial transactions
and see exactly what you buy, when, and where.
Isn't that comforting?
Number five is census data.
(eerie music)
In America, the U.S. Census Bureau
gathers data about American citizens.
This includes where we live, our gender identities,
who we live with, how long we've been there,
when and where we were born,
and huge amounts of other personal data.
This is gathered through regular census surveys.
Although this information is supposed to be kept private
for 72 years and locked behind legislation
so that the FBI and other government entities
cannot access it, the U.S. Census Bureau is,
well, part of the government.
We just don't know how this information is used
and who it might be given to.
It seems highly likely that such a rich source of data
is unofficially accessed when deemed necessary
by both elected and unelected officials.
So the next time you fill out a census survey,
just tell them your religion is Jedi.
They won't take anything seriously you say after that.
Number four is satellites.
(eerie music)
Spy satellites, also known as reconnaissance satellites,
were first conceived of in the 1950s.
We don't know exactly when the first ones
were put into orbit, but throughout the 1960s and '70s,
these satellites became more common.
They were first built so that America and the Soviet Union
can spy on each other without having
to use reconnaissance aircraft.
However, since then, they've both been used domestically
and internationally by governments around the world.
No one is sure how powerful these satellites are,
because they're currently classified.
One indicator of current power
is that the keyhole satellite class
can allegedly photograph an object
as small as five inches across.
These have been in operation since the 1980s,
so who know how powerful spy satellites are today?
I wear a comically large hat
to stop them from spying on my outside.
I don't care if I get looks.
Number three is IMSI catchers.
(eerie music)
An international mobile subscriber identity catcher,
or IMSI catcher for short, is an eaves dropping device
used by governments to tap into cellphone calls.
Not only are they used to intercept phone calls,
but they're actually used to track their current location.
The IMSI catcher works as a fake mobile tower,
tricking a cellphone into thinking
it's a regular phone tower.
This is known as a man-in-the-middle attack,
where the IMSI also connects to a real phone tower
and picks up calls from both the tower and the target phone.
IMSI catchers are used all the time in surveillance,
though their use has brought up civil liberty issues,
including privacy concerns.
But that doesn't stop the government
from secretly using them.
The only catcher I like is in baseball, right?
Am I right?
(chuckles) Jokes.
Runnin' outta jokes.
Number two are toll booths.
(eerie music)
In 2015, the New York Civil Liberties Union
released a large number of government records showing
how the government has been spying on New York residents.
One of the strangest methods was its use of toll booths.
Those traveling through these tolls
were being scanned by E-ZPass readers,
which were used by the government
to scan electronic data inside passing cars,
specifically the electronic tags drivers kept in their cars
to pay at the toll booths.
It was also discovered that the E-ZPass readers
were being combined with the StingRay
cellphone tracking device.
Officials claim that these scanners
are being used to study traffic.
However, some believe that the information
is just one more way for the government
to access private data and keep track of people.
Can't ever scan me, though.
I keep my car and my body covered in tin foil
under my clothes at all time.
That's normal, right?
And number one are spies.
(eerie music)
We can talk about complex technological ways
that the government spies on you.
We can worry about documents that we've signed
and how that information ends up in the wrong hands.
However, sometimes, when you need to learn something,
you just need a good old-fashioned spy.
If we look at history, we see that spies
are not superhuman secret agents like James Bond.
They're often ordinary people.
After all, the whole point of being a spy
is to blend in and be trusted.
There's no doubt that the government
currently uses spies both abroad
and domestically to gather information.
These people could even be someone you know.
So if you're thinking of taking over the world,
you might not want to tell Tom about it at the water cooler
when you're shootin' the breeze.
He could be a spy.
Also, he's just a gossiper,
and ain't nobody got time for that.
But as always, thank you guys so much for watching,
for liking this video, and of course for subscribing.
And a very special thank you to all of my channel members,
especially the names you see on your screen right now.
All of you help keep my channel going.
Thanks again, and I'll see you in the next one.