Just in case you weren't already, you might want to re-think joking about your future plans for a terrorist attack over Gchat or Xbox LIVE. That is, unless you'd like to get "intimately acquainted" with the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the agency has made real time spying on email platforms like GMail, and cloud computing services a "top priority."

Indeed, the American government has more information on the average American than Stalin had on Russians, Hitler had on German citizens, or any other government has ever had on its people.

The American government is collecting and storing virtually every phone call, purchases, email, text message, internet searches, social media communications, health information, employment history, travel and student records, and virtually all other information of every American.

A debate over how freely the U.S. government can eavesdrop on international communications reaches a climax on Monday in the country's highest court.
At issue is a law passed by Congress in 2008 allowing the government to monitor the overseas communications of individuals without obtaining a warrant for each target.

TrapWire is a massive and technologically advanced surveillance system that has the capacity to keep nearly the entire population of this country under the watchful eye of government 24 hours a day. Using this network of cameras and other surveillance tools, the federal government is rapidly constructing an impenetrable, inescapable theater of surveillance, most of which is going unnoticed by Americans and unreported by the mainstream media.

Wired Article...

CIA Chief: We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher.

(User's notes: It's very conceivable. It's can start as companies using your usage data without you even knowing it, then grow into an abomination. The infrastructure is already in place, follow the link below to learn more about power lines as a medium for data transfer)

Wiki: Power line communication...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line_communication