Don't Freak Out, But The Government Has Been Inside Your Games

This is going to sound a little crazy.

If you haven't heard of Edward Snowden, you should be aware that he is a former intelligence agent who at one time worked for the CIA and then the NSA. Snowden is now a fugitive under temporary asylum in Russia, because the United States government is not thrilled with the fact that he has leaked 200,000 highly confidential documents to the public. These documents have detailed various kinds of classified surveillance techniques, ranging from collecting phone records to tapping fiberoptic cables.

Today, it has been revealed that the NSA also worked to hoard data from Xbox Live and planted agents inside World of Warcraft and Second Life.

I told you it would sound a little crazy.

The leaked document can be found here as provided by The Guardian. There is something creepily chipper about it, with the presence of the occasional exclamation point looking rather strange within a top secret NSA file.

(Also, in case you ever run into someone who says America's Army wasn't made to recruit gamers, refer them to this document, where they state that its use in recruitment exceeded their expectations. Hrm.)

I leave what to think of this all up to you, but for now, I'll just wonder if Leeroy wasn't a sleeper agent trying to disrupt a major operation.