IRS using Google Maps to spy on taxpayers

◼ Agents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are using Google Maps as part of their tool kit to audit taxpayers and organizations, The Daily Caller has learned. - Josh Peterson/Daily Caller

In addition to using freely available aerial and street photographs to survey property, agents are also encouraged to use search engines to research background information on suspected tax cheats....

“The Internet (using Google or other similar search engine) can be an excellent source of background information relevant to the taxpayer, done organization and appraiser,” states the agency’s manual.

The guidance, which is posted publicly online at the IRS’s website, was last revised on Jan. 3, 2012. An agency manual, effective Oct. 1, 2013, also lists Google, Google Maps, and a number of other Internet search tools to help agents spy on taxpayers.

...surveillance methods include the monitoring of Facebook posts, eBay listings and electronic credit card records.

◼ Guess what?! NSA is tracking cell phone location data - Josh Peterson/Daily Caller

◼ INDIANA STATE POLICE REPORTEDLY PAID $373K FOR MYSTERIOUS CELL PHONE TRACKING DEVICE, WON’T SAY HOW THEY ARE USING IT - The Blaze

The Indiana State Police paid $373,995 for a device that could allow authorities to capture cell phone data from unsuspecting individuals, according to a newly released document obtained by the Indiana Star.

The device, known as a “stingray,” may work by tricking an individual’s cell phone into thinking it is a cell tower, which results in the phone connecting to it. The stingray could possibly then capture location data and call records, among other information....

According to the Indiana Star, which obtained the information through a public records request, “officials at Indiana’s largest police agency aren’t saying what they do with the technology; they’re mum on whose data they’ve collected so far; and they’re not talking about what steps they take to safeguard the data.”

“[T]hey won’t even say whether they ask a judge for a search warrant before they turn the equipment on,” the newspaper reported Sunday.