Not to make you paranoid or anything, but the next time you’re walking down the street texting on your smartphone and you see a small plane buzzing overhead you might want to look a little bit closer — because it might be the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation).

And it might — just might — be following you.

Presuming you’re up to no good, or something like that.

This is all according to an astounding recent Associated Press report that came out on Tuesday that links more than 50 small aircraft to FBI surveillance in both urban and rural areas of the United States by way of identifying people through the phones they carry.

More from the AP:

For decades, the planes have provided support to FBI surveillance operations on the ground. But now the aircraft are equipped with high-tech cameras, and in rare circumstances, technology capable of tracking thousands of cellphones, raising questions about how these surveillance flights affect Americans’ privacy.

“It’s important that federal law enforcement personnel have the tools they need to find and catch criminals,” said Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “But whenever an operation may also monitor the activities of Americans who are not the intended target, we must make darn sure that safeguards are in place to protect the civil liberties of innocent Americans.”

The FBI says the planes are not equipped or used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance. The surveillance equipment is used for ongoing investigations, the FBI says, generally without a judge’s approval.

The FBI confirmed for the first time the wide-scale use of the aircraft, which the AP traced to at least 13 fake companies, such as FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services.

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