Is the government spying on you online?

The Department of Homeland Security may be "dropping in" to visit online users if their email contains certain words, it was revealed recently by the United Kingdom's Daily Mail in a story by Daniel Miller.

According to that story, "The words are included in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder' used by workers at their National Operations Center …"

In addition to terrorism, the agency is searching for "evidence of unfolding natural disasters, public health threats and serious crimes …" the paper indicated.



THE KEY WORDS

Of course, there are many words used in the universe of security, which are also part of the vocabulary of the agricultural community.

The following list includes many of those words one should be aware of as "triggers" to perhaps an unwanted online visit by the government's spying agency.

Domestic Security: drill, prevention, shooting, threat, screening, incident, facility.

HAZMAT and Nuclear: chemical spill, toxic, leak, chemical, chemical burn, hazardous, infection, powder, gas, chemical agent, exposure, burn.

Health Concern: contamination, exposure, virus, foot and mouth, flu, salmonella, human to animal, influenza, toxic, agriculture, symptoms, antiviral, infection, sick, swine, pork, strain, quarantine, vaccine, E. Coli.

Infrastructure Security: grid, power, electric, failure, outage, service disruption, power lines.

Terrorism: target, home grown.

Weather/Disaster: emergency, tornado, twister, flood, storm, virus, ice, hail, wildfire, disaster, snow, blizzard, sleet, power outage, warning, watch, lightening, aid, relief, worm.

The documents were secured by a Freedom of Information request by the Electronic Privacy Information center, which says the words are "broad, vague and ambiguous."