Even your trash can may not be safe from the government’s eyes.
Around 14,000 agents are getting more powers to search databases, examine household trash and use surveillance teams to scrutinise targets.
But the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s move to give agents more scope to watch people of interest has been criticised by privacy lawyers.
Former FBI agent Michael German, now an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, said it could make it harder to stop inappropriate use.
‘Claiming additional authorities to investigate people only further raises the potential for abuse,’ he told the New York Times.
An inspector general found in 2007 it abused the ‘national security letters’ system that allows the access of personal information with no court order.
But FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni said the problems from 2007 had been fixed and the new guidelines had been carefully considered.
She told the New York Times the alterations to its operations manual were ‘more like fine-tuning than major changes’.
The revised rules will mean agents can look through the trash of a potential informant.
