A silly internet rumour, which claims that the US government is installing digital TV boxes into every household in a bid to spy on everyone, is actually gaining some publicity.

The rumour started in February when someone posted a YouTube clip of a Magnavox digitial converter being taken apart, revealing a tiny camera and a microphone inside. It was all a gag but it made sense to those who believe that the government really does want to watch them downing buckets of potato chips while watching American Idol.

The idea is being pushed by radio host Alex Jones who claims that digital home surveillance plans have been in the works for years. Using the YouTube footage as evidence he predicted "the ultimate Big Brother scenario whereby the majority of Americans and Europeans will have Orwellian telescreens watching their every move."

The logic of the argument is that the government is too keen on getting punters to have crisp clean TV images and is spending billions to make sure it happens. The fact that the government has flogged off the radio spectrum that the analogue signal occupies does not seem to have occurred to them.

Jones is famous for believing that airplanes did not crash into anything on September 11 and it was all a CIA plot to send America into Iraq. Between YouTube and Jones we think that this could go the way of the rumour that digital  barcodes were the mark of the beast and contained the number 666 in them.