The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has developed advanced surveillance techniques giving it the power to secretly activate web cameras to spy.
Tech savvy G-men can remotely turn on cameras that transmit real-time images to investigators, without turning on the light that shows the camera is in use.
According to the New York Post, the FBI can also carry out surveillance into a suspect's computer and download files, photographs and stored e-mails.
The new snooping capabilities came to light during an investigation of a mysterious man named 'Mo'.
Mo had threatened to blow up a building filled with innocent people unless authorities free Colorado movie-theatre shooting suspect James Holmes, the report said.
He also threatened to bomb a jail, a hotel, three colleges and two airports.
However, no bombs were found at the targets he mentioned.
The Washington Post revealed that Mo sometimes used an untraceable e-mail, other times an encrypted phone.
Mo even sent the FBI pictures of himself fashionably decked out in an Iranian military uniform.
The FBI attempting to track him down used special software that would install itself in Mo's computer when he opened his e-mail.
It was designed specifically to help agents track his location and his movements.
But the software never worked as designed, and Mo remains at large.
The feds had got the permission to install the software from a Denver judge.
