In our Facebook Story of the Day for June 15, we talk about your privacy.
We don't mention the FBI much in the Tri-States, but KHQA has learned some new information about the agency ... Involving personal privacy and we thought you might be interested.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been run, based upon their 2008 Domestic Investigations and Operations guide, but now they have made new changes without needing a court decision or a change in privacy laws and they have rewritten their manual.
New changes involve undocumented database searches, lie-detector tests, trash searches, surveillance squads, "undisclosed participation" in organizations, authorizing informants at religious ceremonies, investigating public officials, and investigating scholars and member of the news media.
Federal agents can now search commercial and law enforcement databases for any person they want ... Even without any evidence of wrongdoing.
The new rules allow FBI agents to administer a lie-detector test on not only suspects, but on potential informants. They can also search the trash of a potential informant in the same manner, with no factual basis for suspected wrongdoing.
Also in the new rules, surveillance squads can be used multiple times, where before they could only be used once during an assesment.
Just when you thought your group or organization was private, now agents will be allowed to attend such meetings up to five times during an investigation.
Usually the FBI calls for additional oversight when investigating a public official, but now if that official is a victim or witness, they won't require that oversight. Similarly when investigating scholars and member of the news media, they made the same adjustments, but now they make a distinction between bloggers and press. Only prominent bloggers would count, not those that blog as a hobby.
The only area where they tightened the reigns is for the option to use informants at religious ceremonies. When deciding to send an informant to a religious ceremony, the new manual will now require the decision to be handled personally by field agents.
Do you think they should change their rules like this? Take your opinion to our Facebook page here.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKHQA