The IRS has upgraded its technology to track virtually everything you do online
This is an older article. One of the key takeaways is that Congress in 2008 gave the IRS the capability to dive into your personal affairs online in ways that even the justice department can't (without a warrant). They only need to view you as somebody of interest.<p>Better still, the exact nature of all this -- wait for it -- is a secret.<p>The long-term trend here is pretty clear. Congress has the Big Data hammer out, and it's not afraid to use it on whatever political cause of the week makes them upset. NSA was first, because terrorism was so bad. But dang it, tax cheats are pretty bad too!<p>There's no slippery slope argument that needs to be made. We're already sliding down it. Just standby for the next travesty. Don't worry, the wait won't be long. Maybe a year or two.<p>The American people remain amazingly ignorant and/or apathetic, though. One wonders how many wake-up calls it will take.<p>ADD: The <i>very</i> interesting question here is this: since the IRS is authorized to go after emails and social chats without a warrant, how are the big service providers going to report this? Even if Google shows its thousands of NSLs, this type of activity wouldn't be covered by them. Some more info here: <a href="http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/mutual-funds/articles/2013/04/04/irs-high-tech-tools-track-your-digital-footprints" rel="nofollow">http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/mutual-funds/...</a>