Six Common things modified into Appalling Spying Machines.

1.) Street Lights

 Illuminating Concepts, a lighting manufacturer based out of Farmington Hills, Mich., has installed Intellistreets in sections of towns across the United States, and even London. The wireless street lamp posts can be remotely operated and were designed for municipalities, entertainment venues and campuses to bolster sustainability and security.

Las Vegas Streetlights Watch & Listen

The streetlights boast a sound system and digital signage to broadcast real-time information to crowds, visual and audio emergency alerts, energy-efficient lighting, cameras, microphones and two-way communication features.

While the company maintains that Intellistreets are purposed for homeland security, traffic control, public safety and advertising, discerning citizens who value their privacy and freedom likely won’t be hip to the idea of streetlights being equipped with such authority.

2.)Smartphones 

Security expert and independent journalist Jacob Appelbaum recently told a hacker conference in Germany that the National Security Agency has the ability to turn iPhones into instruments of eavesdropping.

At Hamburg's Chaos Communications Conference, according to the Associated Press, Applebaum said the NSA’s capabilities are "are even worse than your worst nightmares."

NSA can deposit malicious software called DOPOUTJEEP onto an iPhone and turn the device into a spy.During his presentation, Applebaum showed a slide detailing how the NSA can deposit malicious software called DOPOUTJEEP on an iPhone that “utilizes modular mission applications to provide specific SIGINT functionality” and basically turn the device into a pocket-sized double agent.

“This functionality includes the ability to remotely push/pull files from the device, SMS retrieval, contact list retrieval, voicemail, geolocation, hot mic, camera capture, cell tower location, etc.,” the slide explained.

"Apple has never worked with the NSA to create a backdoor in any of our products, including iPhone," the company told All Things D. "Additionally, we have been unaware of this alleged NSA program targeting our products."

3.)Television.

There are cameras on your phone, computer and gaming systems. Plus, you willingly submit to algorithms on websites like Netflix and Pandora that recommend movies and music based on your viewing and listening habits. Naturally, Intel wants to combine the two.

With the company’s in-the-works Web TV service, the unit reportedly will feature a built-in camera in an aim to personalize the user experience by making program suggestions based on viewing habits. As well, advertisers can expect to have their pockets lined by targeting ads to third parties.

Eric Huggers, Intel Media’s corporate vice president, says he thinks viewers will eventually warm up to the idea of having a camera watching them, but if not, there’s a flap to cover up the lens.

4.)Wristbands.

Last spring, the Walt Disney Resort in Orlando launched MyMagic+, a program that integrated an interactive website and mobile app with an electronic bracelet that guests use as a theme-park ticket, room key and payment account.

The so-called MagicBands are equipped with radio-frequency identification technology, or RFID tags, and monitor what rides visitors frequent, which characters they interact with, what they buy and where they go within the park.

While Tom Staggs, chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts, asserted that the RFID bracelets are optional for park visitors, some privacy proponents are up in arms, especially since the bracelets could be used on children.

5.)Home Appliances.

Now that the “Internet of Things” is being slapped onto just about any home appliance you can think of, it’s possible to brew a pot of coffee, preheat your oven, start the dishwasher or activate a load of laundry from remote locations via a smartphone, computer or tablet.

Cool as the effects of a so-called smart home may be, all that geo-tagged data can be used against you should you become “a person of interest” to a spy. What time you make a pot of coffee or dry your load of whites may sound like harmless information, but for someone out to pin down your habits, those details can be a gold mine. Even thermostats, air conditioners and security systems are vulnerable.

Before resigning in 2012, former CIA Director David Petraeus was all but salivating about what the “Internet of Things” could do for “clandestine tradecraft.”

“Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers and energy harvesters -- all connected to the next-generation Internet using abundant, low-cost and high-power computing,” Petraeus said, according to Wired.

6.)Insulin Pumps.

When former Vice President Dick Cheney had a medical device implanted to regulate his heartbeat in 2007, he had his doctors deactivate its wireless capabilities to thwart any assignation attempts.

If you think that’s just a plot from “Homeland,” think again. Before his mysterious death, White Hat hacker Barnaby Jack proved he could kill a diabetic person from 300 feet away simply by programming an insulin pump to deliver a lethal dose. Jack additionally claimed that he had proof that pacemakers like Cheney’s could also be hacked.

7.)Facebook.

If you don't want the world to know your business, don't tell Facebook either.

If a stranger approached you asking for your name, age, phone number, names of family and friends, and interests, with the intent of sharing that information to more strangers, you'd probably be hesitant to readily give up that information. Yet that's essentially what users do when they create their Facebook profiles.

All of that information about you isn't owned by you. All of those personalized data points belong to Facebook, and there are ways all that sharing can come back to bite you.

Facebook's business isn't just connecting users across the world; it's selling the information on those users to advertisers so that they can find out who you are, build a profile and determine what they think you'd want to purchase.

As explained in a Wall Street Journal article, Facebook allows marketers "to target ads at users based on the email address and phone number they list on their profiles, or based on their surfing habits on other sites."

Facebook isn't the only one in the consumer data mining business. Google, Verizon, AT&T and other digital media and telecommunications companies also engage in this practice. And in many cases, there is no way for users to opt out, essentially making their personal histories a commodity.

People on Facebook aren't only posting content about themselves on the social networking site; they're also sharing photos of their children. Like everything else on the Internet, these uploads can leave permanent digital prints of kids as they grow into adulthood.

Given the number of changes that Facebook has implemented over the years, not only in terms of its technology, but also its privacy policy, what does it mean to the youngest generation who never had the chance to opt out or even understand what social networking was when the first photos of their infant selves appeared online?

Slate's Amy Webb in an article posted earlier this month explained how she refuses to post anything about her daughter online in order to protect her from corporate data mining, profiling and more.

Much to the author's surprise, photos of her daughter had in fact been published online, as she notes in a follow-up, demonstrating the limited control a parent has over their child's digital footprint even at the youngest age.