If you have seen the new documentary film “Take Back Your Power,” or even the trailer videos, you know that there was considerable discussion on how our privacy is at risk from a whole range of sources.  Your privacy is potentially at risk from surfing the Internet to using household appliances, to just watching television.  After watching the film, I followed up with some independent research and will present some short videos and other information, some of which were shown in the documentary film “TBYP.”  My investigative efforts ultimately expanded beyond the content presented in “TBYP.”

Google’s Creepy Line of Intrusiveness

Some of what was shown in the “TBYP” film related to comments made by Eric Schmidt from Google who indicated there are almost no limits on the company’s ability to track your every movement.  What follows are expanded videos as compared to that presented in the “TBYP” film.

[Above video clip contains material used pursuant to Fair Use Doctrine under 17 U.S.C.]

National Security Agency (NSA) Program “Stellar Wind”

Last year in 2012, Wired magazine revealed details about how the National Security Agency was quietly building the largest spy center in the world as part of a secret NSA surveillance program codenamed “Stellar Wind.”  Below is a video that describes the nature of that program.

[The above video is attributed to Democracy Now! at democracynow.org which is an independent news program.  Original content is licensed under a creative common works license but as rendered may be subject to the Fair Use Doctrine under 17 U.S.C.]

NSA Project “Perfect Citizen”

Going back to July 2010, before I ever started following the smart meter issue, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the NSA launched a domestic surveillance program named “Perfect Citizen” to monitor computer networks of systems deemed as critical infrastructure such as the electricity grid and nuclear power plants.  Here is a video that briefly describes that program.

[The above video is attributed to Democracy Now! at democracynow.org which is an independent news program.  Original content is licensed under a creative common works license but as rendered may be subject to the Fair Use Doctrine under 17 U.S.C.]

As reported in the press in January 2013, the NSA turned over documents on the controversial Perfect Citizen program to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in response to a FOIA request.  The redacted documents obtained from the federal agency by EPIC state that “[t]he prevention of a loss due to a cyber or physical attack [on Sensitive Control Systems, like large-scale utilities], or recovery of operational capability after such an event, is crucial to the continuity of the [Department of Defense] DOD, the [Intelligence Community] IC, and the operation of [Signals Intelligence] SIGNIT systems.”

The NSA claims that Perfect Citizen is merely a research and development program.  The documents obtained by EPIC suggest that the program is operational.

“Previously the agency had said it was just a research program,” says Ginger McCall, director of the Open Government Program at EPIC, which won release of the documents.  “But we see in these documents that they do intend to conduct testing, actual research, actual vulnerability testing and develop software tools that could be operational.”

As reported in the above video, Raytheon received a $100 million classified contract to start work on the program.  The contents of an internal Raytheon e-mail message leaked to the Wall Street Journal stated that “Perfect Citizen is Big Brother.”

There has been speculation that the NSA, through Project Perfect Citizen, could spy on Americans through their smart meters since each smart meter (once installed) provides an access point to the electrical grid for cyber attack.

The stated scope of Perfect Citizen is to protect “critical infrastructure such as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants.”  This could be interpreted that any monitoring (or spying) would be on the utilities themselves and not on private citizens.  But if so, why did the NSA not name the program “Perfect Utility.”  Instead, the NSA named the program “Perfect Citizen.”  What are we to think?