Noun: glowies. A slang term for government agents posing as regular people, usually on message boards and forums.
"Normally used for the CIA but also used for agencies like the ATF, FBI, etc. Their inability to blend in to the native population's habits, patterns and speech makes them stick out like a sore thumb to the population, hence they "glow in the dark."
"
—Urban Dictionary
Coined by programmer Terry Davis but picked up by 4chan and others, the word is often used to refer to (usually) US Government agents trying to blend in to the populace whilst attempting ot gather information. Terry, whether seriously or in jest, suggested that (in particular CIA agents "…glow in the dark, you can see them if you're driving. You just run them over, that's what you do." YouTuber Mental Outlaw, a privacy and security geek, often refers to government agents as glowies, albeit in a wider sense than Davis, including anyone who would be interested in examining or pilfering personal data, by which he means the FBI, NSA or other three-letter agencies.
To be frank, any organisation with the expertise and power of these agencies is going to get my data if they want it, no matter no matter how you protect it. As a bit of a privacy geek myself, I'm more concerned about anyone else who wants to poke around in my stuff. Besides, unless he political climate changes even more abruptly, I'm not likely o be in their sights. My threat profile is rather commercial organisations attempting to use my metadata to build a profile to try to advertise at me. That and nosy TSA peons.
Somebody please write up Terry Davis, he deserves recognition here!
$ xclip-o | wc -w
BQ25 275