Actor and sometimes-Hollywood-heartthrob Shia LaBeouf said he warned Americans about probes very similar to the NSA controversy the nation is still coming to terms with five years ago.
LaBeouf sat down with Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" in 2008 and said an FBI consultant he worked on during the filming of the movie "Eagle Eye" told him that the actor's phone conversations were being recorded, and then was able to play them back for him, according to UPI.
An FBI consultant that was hired to educate LaBeouf on his role in the picture claimed the star was already being monitored.
"[The FBI consultant] told me that one in five phone calls which you make are recorded and logged," LaBeouf told Leno. "And I laughed at him, and then he played back a phone conversation I had had two years prior to joining the picture [Eagle Eye]."
And while Americans now know the NSA controversy dates back to 2006 and was technically public knowledge, it had not received significant attention until last week when former CIA employee Edward Snowden leaked highlight classified information to the Guardian and The Washington Post.
LaBeouf recounted that the FBI consultant told him the government had to the power to control other personal technologies, including home security systems and automobile assistance programs.
"I remember talking to an FBI consultant telling me that they can use your ADT security box to get the stuff going on in your house," he told Leno. "Or they can use OnStar to shut your car down."
LaBeouf and Leno noted that just being involved in the movie was enough for government authorities to listen in on the star's phone calls; even though President Barack Obama said last week that the content of people's calls were not being monitored, just information such as time stamps and call duration.
