By Josh Ely
Americans should assume "Big Government" is watching them, contends the author of "Police State USA: How Orwell's Nightmare is Becoming Our Reality."
Cheryl Chumley's warning follows confirmation that the National Security Administration accessed hundreds of billions of records of emails, telephone calls and online chats.
"This latest revelation shows that Americans who use social media at all should just assume their posts and communications are being monitored by Big Government," she said.
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USA Today reported the NSA has a search engine that enables 23 federal agencies, including the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, to hunt through a massive data pool created by the NSA program called ICREACH.
The search engine, according to documents released by leaker Edward Snowden, originally was intended to spy on America's enemies. But now it's being used against innocent Americans, the reports said.
The search engine is not linked directly to the NSA's phone call spy program, but it has accumulated more than 850 billion records on emails, cell phone locations and online chats, the reports said.
The revelations follow the discovery in recent months of various NSA programs to spy on Americans and vast IRS monitoring – and even alleged harassment – of Americans.
WND reported this week the government was contributing heavily to a program to monitor social media postings for "hateful" content. The project at Indiana University will watch tweets for "political smears" and "social pollution."
The NSA explains ICREACH is a key party of a post-9/11 America.
USA Today reported the Intercept site revealed the search engine as "the first definitive evidence that the NSA has for years made massive amounts of surveillance data directly accessible to domestic law enforcement agencies."
The report said ICREACH provides "worldwide intelligence targets" but "also appears to provide access to 'millions of records on American citizens who have not been accused of any wrongdoing.'"
The USA Today report said federal officials confirmed the "surveillance takes place with no court oversight and has received minimal congressional scrutiny."
Chumley said Americans should accept that their views are not secured online.
"The federal government spies on innocent Americans, and it's not going to stop any time soon," she said.
Josh Ely is an intern for WND.