The FBI is giving new authority to its nearly 14,000 agents, allowing them to search government and commercial databases without opening a formal investigation or even giving a reason why.  The changes also allow agents to administer lie-detector tests to and search the trash of potential informants.

 Under current rules, agents are required to open an inquiry or formal “assessment” before searching someone in a database and must provide some justification for doing so.

These new changes are the latest chapter in the ongoing debate between national security and individual privacy rights.

The questions remains – how many personal civil liberties should be sacrificed for the safety of the general public?

The FBI plans to issue its latest version of the 2008 Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, an extensive document detailing the latest changes.

Civil liberty groups are worried that the new rules will open the door for potential abuse of government authority. In the past, the “big brother is always watching” theory has been the plot of action movies and cynical novels. Now, some are arguing that these new methods are intrusive and give agents more leeway to investigate innocent people.

Many are saying it would be unwise to further ease restrictions on agents’ power, especially after an inspector general’s findings in 2007 reported that the F.B.I. had frequently misused “national security letters,” which allowed agents to gain information like phone records without a court order.

“It’s the government saying we can know all about your private life, but you can’t know what the government is doing,” Michael German, a former FBI agent now working with the American Civil Liberties Union, told Fox News.

The FBI has downplayed the changes, arguing that they merely clarify the rules that are already in place and that these measures are needed to combat crime and terrorism.

Granting agents broader powers to snoop may strip innocent people of their right to privacy who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

FBI Director Robert Mueller is expected to sign the new guidance in the near future, and it will take effect 30 days later.

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