Speaking from personal experiences, yeah, the CIA doesn't do shit inside this country on social media. Outside of some boring public outreach shit like any other government agency, or big company.

If they need something done, and done right, and under budget, they contract that shit out. And in the event it IS done, they try to hide the tracks for anything as much as possible. State and Rural Highway Traffic and Market Research.. The line item was about $350k, which is kinda, umm, nothing. :D I believe MichDOT gets more allocated for office parties, team building exercises, and volatile organic fume awareness. :D

Granted, this was back in the late 90s, early 00s. People hired had no ties to law enforcement, were computer literate, but not exceptionally so, were usually really really good at general research, language and social theory (practical aspects at least), and of course commerce and market research. If you needed people to cheaply outfit a house with furniture, clothes, etc, etc. Or to liquidate a bunch of assets, like to close out an estate or help someone move cross country (without paying to move 5 tons of shit you didn't need), we could do that.

Planning and logistics, also a plus, basic record keeping, and running down hard to find information. Knowing the public records system, rules of evidence in civil and criminal cases, etc.

Most of this is shit a reasonably educated high school student/grad could do. And we had a few who were pretty close. Mostly college kids, trade school, tech school kids. About the only particular thing of interest was the Farley File system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farley_file

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Goncalves-21/publication/221270982_Surpassing_farley_files_Opportunities_and_challenges_on_obtaining_personally_relevant_information/links/09e4150642febbacd7000000/Surpassing-farley-files-Opportunities-and-challenges-on-obtaining-personally-relevant-information.pdf?origin=publication_detail

Also the book "Working with Difficult People" was in there. It helps you out with basic organization skills, understanding how and why people do the shit they do, enough to handle yourself in public social situations.

As cover, we usually kept stuff on us related to Multi Level Marketing. Melaleuca, Amway, I had an assortment of calling cards like Penny Power, various trade catalogs like where to get appliances, plumbing, and construction supplies. Plus an assortment of business cards like you would not believe. Usually I just got some cheap baseball card catalogs and loaded them up in that. Plus if you needed some kind of fixer, to get something legally, but not well know, we knew some guys, who knew some guys. Natural Rock Basement wall repair and refinishers, yeah, we know some guys. Not cheap, but cheaper than you might expect....

Worst case people might think we were grifty freelancers trying to get commissions and kickbacks six ways from Sunday. And yeah, if that was part of the bargain, fuck yeah! Of if you just need a few 1 kilo boxes of Amway SA8 to clean some musty carpets, or a bunch of old clothes, I could hook people up. Need some people to help move your cousins quick, we can do that! Get you the whole Ovid football or wrestling team if you need it. ;P Although I think that one was done when someone need to get in like 1200 bales of hay, same day service, before it rained.

And what were we doing? Sticking our noses into militias, extremist groups, separatists, weird religions, political groups, biker gangs, whatever. Not deep undercover, but if they had a "public" function, like a garage sale, something like open meeting day at AA, if there was a bunch throwing a public/semi public, friends of friends of friends sort of get together cookout, kegger, skeet shoot sort of event, and nothing made the old spider sense tingle, sure, wander in, get to know people. Get to know some things.

Having experience with cars, guns, mechanical sorts of things, electrical engineering, knowledge of the military, and various odds and ends.. I can hold up my end of a conversation, at least as much as one might expect of someone at journeyman levels of various trades.

Did someone involved in Aryan Nations, various KKK chapters, militia groups, or biker gangs give a shit if I worked for the state DOT? Fuck no! Someone who knows how to run the business end of a 6 foot tall water cooled concrete saw wasn't gonna be the guy to send you to federal prison. Or so the logic went. Certainly not if they're at your yard sale looking to buy a used video game, jukebox, pinball machine, skeet/trap flinger, old reloading fixtures, camping gear, or whatever looked interesting.

And I'll make no bullshit about it, if you're making $18-22k a year legit on the books from a government job, and an undisclosed amount under the table in assorted gift cards and other forms of unconventional currency(at least for the 90s), all those garage sale finds, sales of amway detergent, WTFE, those were indeed legit "I'm gonna make a bunch of money off this shit" sort of sales. If someone gives me a $20 for a box of Amway SA8 I got for $8-12, cool. Or sometimes, if I'd visited home, I'd load up a good 14-30 cartons of fucking cigarettes, and sell them for double or triple on the other end. Case of everclear, no problemo! lol!

But often as not, the real shit, was being able to fix something for someone. Old jukebox need a new belt, some grease, fix a few wires to the needle cartridge, clean out some dust bunnies, fix some solders. 4 hours of work, $1500 plus some "powdered entertainment", which was sure as hell off the books, but nobody was drug tested. And I got that shit off my hands faster than if it was a tactical nuke. lol!

Did the guy make some obscene amount of cash for selling a Working Jukebox from the 60s, as opposed to a non working one? Oh fuck yeah! I think he traded that plus some cash for a Harley he wanted. But, that'll fucking make you "The GUY!" in certain circles more than a lot of fancy intrigues and tradecraft. lol! Use what ya got!

Now, some might cite rules of evidence, Fruit of the Poisoned Tree, laws against being a private investigator without a license. Well, nobody was investigating "crimes" per se. And nothing against the law about expanding your social and business contracts, "building your network" and jotting down some notes that might be of interest.. If those things of interest were something a member of law enforcement could, in theory, stumble across if they were the right place and the right time.. So much the better. ;)

"Independent Discover of Evidence" is a loophole big enough to float a supertanker through. Its why you never trust that just because a stranger you did drugs you, they can't provide evidence that might get your ass busted. If you're sloppy enough in your activities that a "random" guy walking down the street at just the wrong time might see "something" that was bad in terms of you staying out of jail, that info can be relayed. They could have partied with your ass for the last week like they were trying to be River Phoenix level high. Because they're not gonna be drug tested. There's no discovery, no records to be found that will prove they're a member of law enforcement, and were the ones who leaking information the lead to you getting busted.

I mean, if you snort a 1 hitter of cocaine at a stoplight, and get caught.. Yeah.. You're just asking for it. If they had to follow you all day to see you do this, and nobody else saw them follow you? They were never there. :D

Food for thought, if you're involved in some shit you really don't need to be involved it.

Granted, most people involved in legit organized crime, don't have a whole lot of options in life in general. Which is why their job is in criminal activity of some sort that generates cash. The more scary thing though, is the people in government jobs, who are involved in some VERY criminal shit, who really don't need to be doing that shit. Other than that they get off on it, or have some kind of psych issues in their fucked up heads. The dollar value of that kind of crime, far far far eclipses street crime, or freebooter crime of any sort out there.

But to purge crime and corruption from the government ranks, risks bringing the whole thing down. Which kinda sucks, and ultimately will be the rot that takes everything down.