Paranoid? Who Is Reading You?

NSA Headquarters – Fort Meade, Maryland

Have you ever wondered who is reading you? Maybe you’re paranoid and think you are being “monitored?”. I mean, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that someone isn’t “monitoring” what you write.  Right?

I once posted extensively somewhere else and started wondering who was reading me besides those who gave me “likes”.  It all began several years ago when I put up a post about Brutus, Caesar, the Ides and moral dilemma. That post garnered some 2,000 hits. Who was so interested in a post about tyrannicide? I never did find out. Eventually I rationalized that, since it was March,  students were being required to write about the Ides and found the post useful.

After the Chelsea Manning and Ed Snowden affairs and the revelation that our government was monitoring our phone calls, photographing our mail and recording our internet activities I got interested again. Who reads me?

I was putting up posts defending Manning and Snowden as whistle blowers. I was also expressing grave disappointment in the Obama administration. Was I being “watched?”

So I found a way to find out who was reading me or at least from where the hit originated; I set up a free account with Statcounter.com. This enabled me to place a code in the html of my post while in the “edit” mode at the other place. I could then track the hits to that particular post.  I got a revelation.

I only encoded and monitored those posts I considered “controversial” – supporting Ed Snowden for example and criticizing government efforts to portray him as a “traitor” rather than someone who exposed wrong doing in the national security state.

Guess who came by to read?

Dod Network Information Center, Arlington Virginia

Department of Veterans Affairs, Silver Spring, Md.

U.S. House of Representatives, Washington D. C,

U. S, Senate, Washington, D. C.

U. S. Department of the Treasury, Washington, D. C.

Center for American Progress, Washington, D. C.

National Public Radio, Washington, D. C.

Beyond the Network America, Washington, D. C.

Think they look for key words?

In addition, there were hits from around the world, some of which I recognize but others are a complete mystery.

The encoded posts got three hits from Iraq; two from Jordan; two from Israel; two from Pakistan; two from the Palestinian Territory; one from the U.A.E. I don’t think about readers in Canada, the U. K.. Europe or Brazil – but three hits from Bhutan?

I mean, I am just an old  seventy one year old retired guy living in Florida. Of what interest could anything I write be to the Department of Defense – unless they scout for key words and look at everything – or everyone.

It’s enough to make one paranoid. Who are those guys digging in front of my house?

P.S.  Since beginning this WordPress blog I have had over 6,000 hits – from over 100 countries.  To my regular readers – thank you.  To any “gummit” readers – aren’t you bored yet?

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photo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:National_Security_Agency_headquarters,_Fort_Meade,_Maryland.jpg