Has there ever been a time when you were watching a spy movie and thought to yourself: “yeah, I can do that too.”

And then you were so hyped up about becoming a spy that you applied for a job at the CIA and got it?

And then you learned that a huge part of espionage is gathering intel and not actually shooting baddies with lasers using your all-in-one watch like Inspector Gadget?

Well, even if you’re not on the field, you’re still doing an important job. And some folks feel like they were born for this because of their elite googling skills.

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For those who always wanted to be spies, great news, if you have an internet connection and a gadget to access said internet with, you have the power

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So much of it, in fact, that you could even attempt to apply for work in the CIA, as (supposedly) jokingly suggested by this comedian

Image credits: ginnyhogan_

Stand-up comedian and author Ginny Hogan humorously tweeted that she finds the fact that 82% of CIA agents apparently are men insane. Why? Because she has managed to track her boyfriend’s “likes” on Twitter and map out his whole romantic history since 2016—and she doesn’t buy the fact that a man could do that.

Now, before you get all triggered, yes, the statistic is in fact correct, according to Zippia, a California-based software company that offers folks career search solutions. In their report, they explain that the men to women ratio working in the CIA is 82.2% to 17.8%.

Image credits: ginnyhogan_

Image credits: ginnyhogan_

They also provide other fun and mayhaps not so fun statistics, like women in the CIA on average earn 90¢ for every $1 earned by men and that some of the other professions that were even more dominated by men were deputy sheriff-K9 handler, fugitive investigator, and town marshal. #TheMoreYouKnow

Anyway, back to the tweet. OK, so, considering Ginny is a comedian, she may or may not have meant it lightheartedly. But that did not stop folks reacting in ways that may or may not have been serious. Whatever the case, many people have shown their potential of doing a great job at the CIA.

This in turn started a bit of a debate among people, whether as a joke or with serious intent

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Apparently, the internet has loads of dirt on us all, and that’s what peeps have been flexing about. And all it takes is a name or an abbreviation on a briefcase and you’re done. Your job, your hobbies, your family members and friends—everything is immediately placed in the palm of this person’s hand. The CIA should be taking notes.

In some cases, folks even figured out if someone is cheating or having multiple partners while looking “for the perfect one.” This applied to dating apps for the most part, but if it’s on the internet, it can work with current partners too. If they’re not careful, that is.

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Image credits: Mikhail Nilov (not the actual photo)

Others took Ginny’s tweet more seriously, like this one Tweeter, who pointed out that all that matters is that the boyfriend is with her right now—who cares about their romantic history prior to that? Another Tweeter speculated that it’s out of boredom and curiosity, sharing how his date was bored and dug out some skeletons from his closet.

Yet others took it a step further and appealed to the trust factor. “Imagine being unable to have a healthy relationship based on trust that you resort to this type of behavior,” said this user. Which sounds legit, but another Tweeter rebutted with the safety argument, that we live in a time and place where women can never be too careful when online dating.

This very quickly turned into a discussion, whether from a comedic or a serious social issue standpoint. Whatever the case, point proven that the internet is a powerful tool in digging up information on yourself, and it’s at the disposal of everyone with a gadget and an internet connection (or a friend or mom’s work that has this equipment).

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Ginny’s tweet does raise a good question: why aren’t there more women in the CIA? They have proven themselves as more than capable of being agents, whether in being able to identify surveillants or playing deception games. One woman even got a medal for her dedicated and effective career in the CIA. But it was often the problem of male-dominated hierarchical structures, a certain glass ceiling that hindered career advancement for women.

Well, since we’re on the topic, it seems appropriate to remind folks of internet (cyber) hygiene. Kaspersky (no sponsor here) suggests a detailed list of steps you can take to keep yourself safe and secure online. But if you need the tl;dr version, here it is:

Keep in mind that if it’s on the internet, it stays there forever, so be careful what you post; review your privacy settings, or stop using social media altogether if you don’t need to; be mindful of where you store your pictures as if it’s a public photo dump, you might find yourself on an ad one day; make sure your friends don’t end up posting stuff about you on their social media without your permission; be mindful of who you share your info with online in general because anyone can be anybody on the internet; and last, but certainly not least, if you really really wanna stay untraceable on the internet, yet want to stay on the internet, use different names and nicknames and don’t link to other accounts.

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But, yet again, back to the tweet. Ginny’s post went viral, garnering over 83,300 likes as well as 4,300 retweets. Several sites picked it up too along the way. You can check it out in context here, by the way.

But before you go, why not share your thoughts on this in the comment section below!

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