Wired.com explains how Big Brother is watching you

Wired.com recently published an article titled "9 Reasons Wired Readers Should Wear Tinfoil Hats" which hypothesized the many ways in which the government tracks us electronically. The post explains how the government [probably] uses wiretapping, tracking devices, border search, fake cell phone towers, government malware, and more. Some of it is simply written to entertain conspiracy theorists, but it is interesting to ponder nonetheless.

It's a little more hypothetical than I'd usually post, but the best part of the article is the graphic (at right) showing how long cell phone companies keep text messages, call records, and Internet activity.

Just last week, confidential guidelines were released detailing how long Facebook, Microsoft, and AOL keep IP logs and data.

RELATED NEWS: NPR released a story detailing how LAPD has a new computer program that predicts the location of future crimes based on past crime patterns. "[C]rime, especially property crime, happens in predictable waves."