Redditor Under Surveillance

[Music] the idea of someone knowing your every move is incredibly unsettling there becomes a degree of helplessness that comes with not having any privacy whatsoever yet interestingly enough every single day with the advent of new technology it becomes easier and easier for someone with power to track our every move well in today's video we're gonna take a look at one such story of a redditor and his friend who had their entire lives put under surveillance in 2010 a redditor was with his friend who was on his way to take his car into the mechanic while his friend's car was getting maintenance done he noticed that under the exhaust pipe there was something sticking out when the car had been purchased a year prior it had been inspected so this object was never seen before and it could not have belonged to the previous owner after getting the car work done the device was removed from the exhaust and immediately prompted questions from the two friends as to how and why it got there after they got back home this leads us to a reddit post on October 7th 2010 this post comes from a user named Khaled the Gypsy who would post into the all section asking what the device was his post read the following me and my friend went to the mechanic today and we found this on his car here's a picture I'm pretty confident is a tracking device by the FBI my friend's roommate thinks it's a bomb any thoughts attached to this photo we get to take a look at exactly what this device looked like notably we see something that resembles a walkie-talkie and a cylindrical shaped object in tandem due to the outlandish claim and potential here this thread would gain quite a bit of traction at first a few users were skeptical but with the hivemind of Reddit looking at the photo one user was able to identify exactly what the device was his comment read the following it's a guardian sta 20 it's a GPS tracking unit made by the company Cobham the product line is called Orion the redditor who said the battery and magnetic unit is handmade is wrong you've got the standard kit sales are restricted to army and law enforcement so yes the FBI or police is after you after I saw this photo I wanted to look into this individual tracking unit and what's incredibly interesting is that there's barely any info whatsoever most of it is just referring to this story and of all the info I did find it came from WikiLeaks of all places according to this document in 2011 about the individual Guardian sta 20 among other models we get to take a look at quite a bit of features of the device what I found to be the most disturbing was the fact that it allowed for real-time notifications and whether someone you were tracking it left an individual boundary area that you set for them the other thing that isn't really surprising is the fact that it's integrated with Google Maps to allow for additional location information including Google Earth and Google Street View also notably in this document we get to take a look at the actual interface used for Sky web which is actually very interesting as it's incredibly detailed this redditor was definitely not supposed to find this device under his friend's car whatsoever I want to clarify one thing before we move forward Khalid the is the opie of the post he did not own the car he simply made the post about the device his friend's car was the one that was being tracked and at the time there was no understanding why the name of the friend who is being tracked by the FBI was the isère Afifi who was a 20 year old marketing student and Khalid was the redditor getting back to the reddit thread many users also seem to question whether or not it was even legal to have a tracking device placed on your car without a search warrant many users were quick to point out that just recently at the time GPS tracking was ruled to be legal without a warrant in the state of California if the car was not parked in a private garage so not only was this guy being tracked he was also being tracked as the result of a new legislation as his thread began to gain traction in a further edit ROP does mention one crucial detail Yazir Afifi his dad had recently passed away he notes that the FBI at one point did reach out to his friend to ask him a few questions about his dad notably easier was a Muslim religious leader I want to note that I couldn't find anything more his father in this entire story this is about all we know many users chimed in with their advice some told them to throw the device away or to get a lawyer and return it to the FBI however at this point the reddit thread would go dark unlike most reddit threads the opie delivered an update and about a week later quite a few articles popped up about the entire situation here we learn exactly what transpired to these two individuals after this reddit thread took place for reference the article I'm about to read from is from wired.com Afifi considered selling the device on Craigslist before the FBI showed up he was in his apartment Tuesday afternoon when a roommate told him to sneaky looking people or near his car Afifi already heading out for an appointment encountered a man and woman looking at his vehicle outside the man asked if Afifi knew his registration tag was expired when Afifi asked if it bothered him the man just smiled Afifi got into his car and headed for the parking lot exit when two SUVs pulled up with flashing lights carrying four police officers in bulletproof vests the agent who initially spoke with Afifi identified himself as Vincent and told Afifi we're here to recover the device you found on your vehicle it's federal property it's expensive and we need it right now Afifi asked are you the guys that put it there and the agent replied yeah I put it there he told Afifi we're going to make this much more difficult if you don't cooperate Afifi retrieve the device from his apartment and handed it over at which point agents asked a series of questions did he know anyone who traveled to Yemen or his affiliated in overseas training one of the agents produced a printout of a blog post that a Fifi's friend khalid allegedly wrote a couple months ago it had something to do with a mall or a bomb Afifi said he hadn't seen it before and he doesn't know the details of what it said he found it hard to believe that Khalid meant anything threatening by the post keep in mind that the printout they're referring to is our opie from the original post-its khalid i want to point out that the FBI clearly had some interest in something else going on not entirely what this guy was up to because they asked about Yemen first and foremost another thing that's incredibly interesting is when you look into this so-called blog post it's not a blog post at all from Khalid it's actually a reddit comment and if you actually read the context of the reddit comment it's not a threat whatsoever we can actually pull up the exact same thread as it's still up today referencing where this point comes from and take into consideration what was actually going on in the thread in this ask reddit thread they asked why airports take away deodorant at security the post reads the following and if it's just harmless deodorant why are you taking it from me but no I didn't say this aloud like everyone else I didn't want to say or do anything that jeopardize my flight so I just turned around and walked towards the room after security where they just happened to sell deodorant in this reddit thread here again we see Khalid the the same person who found the device on a Fifi's car as one of the top comments with nearly a thousand up votes to paraphrase he's not making if mom thread he's pointing out how unnecessary certain things are in airports and then I would really only take one crazy person to be a domestic thread this entire reddit thread is just pointing out how certain airports extort you for money that's it what's incredibly ironic is at the end of his individual comment he states he's probably been bugged just for making the comment now if we take a step back we can see that the FBI's reasoning is leaving something out Khalid was the one who made the comment and a fee fee was tracked for three to six months and this reddit comment was made for three and a half months so even if this was the direct reason to track his friend what's the reason for the extra two and a half months to summarize it doesn't make sense for you as a person to get tracked by the FBI for something that your friend said on reddit thereafter you see Rififi would sue the government for overstepping their bounds on the first fourth and fifth Amendment rights this case would take about five years and was later thrown out by the judge keep in mind this would affect users life not only from having to pay legal fees to fight this situation but would also lead jazeera fefe to have difficulty finding work since he had run-ins as a suspected person of interest no one would want to hire him with this story out of the way let's take some time to do some analysis as I hinted at earlier I don't believe Khalid to be the person of interest who warranted surveillance on Yazir my theory here is that we're likely missing some key information about the father of uz Rififi I believe the father who was a religious leader was likely the real person of interest and something surrounding him is what Ledger's year to being tracked by way of Association I want to point out very few people have ever found a tracking device from the FBI on their car when this slip-up occurred I have a feeling that they needed some justification as to go retrieve the device it takes two seconds to realize that Khalid wasn't making a threat on that reddit thread and why didn't they track Khalid why did they track his friend it's really really obvious that this wasn't the main reason this is just my opinion though I obviously don't know the exact motivation behind what the FBI determines as a threat in conclusion this story from reddit is incredibly unsettling a story like this to some degree makes paranoia justifiable this is a very rare glimpse into someone being tracked and we rarely get to see something like this it really makes you wonder how many other people out there have been tracked and don't realize it there's a chance if enough people watch this video at least one of you is being monitored as we speak and even if you were that one who was being monitored this story does also put into perspective just how helpless you'd be if you wanted to challenge Big Brother with all of that being said this is barely sociable have a good night [Music] Oh [Music]

Channel: Barely Sociable

Views: 882,823

Rating: 4.9438038 out of 5

Keywords: redditor, reddit true stories, reddit scary, scary, scary stories, true scary stories, true horror stories, reddit mystery, true stories, reddit

Id: k_B3a2cCqo0

Length: 10min 42sec (642 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 11 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/WHannam]

Another great Vid, maybe some new background graphics just to mix it up abit. Loving the videos tho man. 👍🏻👍🏻

[u/dragonvalefun]

Great video.

I have to agree on the spying individuals from the authority. I am Canadian, and the way the authority to spy on the citizen is shadier. At the time when I met someone at the Cafe, he told me how the government spy and harass him because he refused to do certain works at the hospital to a few individuals. He told me he had a good moral standard to refuse that because it could take some life away. He then got fired and then had people in black cars and black suits following him all the time. He also got "homeless people" damaged his home windows after getting fired all the time, which had never happened before. I thought he was joking until one evening I got some men in black suits in black cars following me home. They asked me, "where is here? what are you doing here? Is that your home?" I felt skepticism all these things happened almost at the same time, but when I thought about "spying", that made sense.

I didn't do anything wrong as a Canadian citizen, I paid taxes on time and not commit any crime. I have nothing to get scared even they spy on me.

[u/Slouched-Couch]

Perfect video man

[u/stooz3]

like always, it’s amazing

[u/youforgotmyoldname]

First, I really enjoy your channel. Id post there but I don't make accounts many places.

Segway Scoot to comment:

Speaking of many, that's the number of people who don't post on Reddit or report bad things that happen to them or people in their lives. The more marginalized, vulnerable, etc they are, the less they're likely to.

And if the perpetrator is armed with guns and special resources and privileges, the number dwindles away to very very few.

[u/mentalmedicine]

I think we're all better off if you just post the name of the video in the title and nothing else. Discussion will happen naturally. It's more important to me (and to most people, I'd think) to have an idea of what the video is about rather than a moderator asking for discussion.

Lots of subreddits have rules against editorializing titles for videos and articles because it can influence discussion. As a moderator you should try and remain neutral.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do, these are merely suggestions. This is all just based on my experience moderating multiple subreddits.

[u/PinealSpiralOut]

That was, as always, impressively put together. I've heard/read this story from multiple different sources, most of which did a good job emphasizing the insecurities one would feel from being tracked like this. Few went as far as to hint towards the obvious dystopian Implications these stories seem to have, and maybe even fewer caught the George Orwell 1984 Big Brother reference at the end of your video. As always you talk about some of the very serious and sometimes overtly obvious societal implications of the "Rabbit Hole" at hand. Thankfully you also do research on all your topics, and never say something that can be easily disproved with a google search... like some of the other youtubers out there :/... and thankkks for the quality content

[u/MintyMint123]

Hey. I’m familiar with the device. I know it’s not crazy important but hey. I know more than the video mentions.