Should I be this paranoid?

[moonloghtkiller]

There are also many keyhole satellites that can see something as small as 5 inches on the ground.

It might be able to look at five inches of the ground, but it's not looking at EVERY 5 inches of ground.

[Heath Winchester]

Yes, exactly. That was part of my point. It has to be looking for something specific to find it. It does't have supernatural powers to where it knows who I am and follows me day and night until I do something criminal.

[The_Computer_Wizard]

ok, theres really two sides to this, legally and actuality
legally the CIA is not allowed to work domestically, but think about it they're chasing someone for 4 years, they fly to the U.S for a weekend to do say an arms deal, you think they're going to give that up lightly?

also, legally to record a phone conversation you need a warrent. This is because it is protected by the the consititution against unreasonable search and seizure. (unreasonable being the government needs to go through the courts, aka a warrent)
however it has come out in the past that the government has recorded conversations without a warrent, but thats usually because of one person or set of people trying to act outside the law (whether they're trying to accomplish the "right thing" or spy on an ex-girlfriend) but there is little proof of a "government conspiracy"
however some try and exploit the patriot act to do this, which some point to government conspiracy. I say its a flawed system that was created out of paranoia that people exploit. It needs to be fixed, but i dont think you can say that because of this exploitation anywhere near "1 in 5 people" are being recorded.
I think really the higher you think the "conspiracy" goes, the higher your level of paranoia

anyway, some of the other answers given were good, either way if they are listening or not, these are still good practices

1. Dont say anything you wouldnt want others to hear. If you're out in public how do you know who the guy next to you in line is?
2. dont write anything you dont want others seeing down. No matter how secure you think your "hiding place is" it isnt. if you need to write it down, get the best hiding place you can find, and encrypt it
3. stick to the lie!

[mrkoolnerd]

what is the nsa?

[The_Computer_Wizard]

http://tinyurl.com/dhh64k
thats the answer you're looking for

[Heath Winchester]

anyway, some of the other answers given were good, either way if they are listening or not, these are still good practices

1. Dont say anything you wouldnt want others to hear. If you're out in public how do you know who the guy next to you in line is?
2. dont write anything you dont want others seeing down. No matter how secure you think your "hiding place is" it isnt. if you need to write it down, get the best hiding place you can find, and encrypt it
3. stick to the lie!

I don't quite follow your logic. I don't quite agree that those are good practices and here's why:

By saying that these are good practices, aren't you basically saying that you should be paranoid?

The first one is basically saying don't go out into public and say anything that society doesn't want to hear. Of course, there are things you just can't say like when you're in an airport you probably shouldn't use the word "bomb". But the way you make it sound as if the guy in line at McDonald's (yuck) could be a spy so don't say anything offensive. That's a pretty shitty way to live if you ask me.

The second one sounds like clinical paranoia to me. Like if I write something down that my little brother who's secretly in the Russian Mafia is going to report it. Again, shitty way to live and pure defined paranoia.

And the third one I just don't understand. Stick to the lie? What do you mean by this?

[The_Computer_Wizard]

The first one is basically saying don't go out into public and say anything that society doesn't want to hear. Of course, there are things you just can't say like when you're in an airport you probably shouldn't use the word "bomb". But the way you make it sound as if the guy in line at McDonald's (yuck) could be a spy so don't say anything offensive. That's a pretty shitty way to live if you ask me.

thats not what i meant by this
if you're talking about something distatestfull be carefull where you say it, for example if you're at a resturaunt with someone, and you've been a professor at a college for 3 months, and you say loudly "the dean of (random university here) is a fucking idiot" how do you know the guy next to you isnt his cousin or something? thats what i meant by that

The second one sounds like clinical paranoia to me. Like if I write something down that my little brother who's secretly in the Russian Mafia is going to report it. Again, shitty way to live and pure defined paranoia.

again, i was not talking about trivial things. more along the lines of dont write something stupid like "hey man, ive been stealing thousands from this company, but if we team up we could steal a lot more, want to join up?"
thats obviously something stupid to write down. he could turn you in, it could wind up in the wrong hands
its just better to not have it with clear evidence
to put it in an example of something more likely to happen to you or others
passing notes in class is against the rules
writing one down such as "hey man wanna hang out after school?" yea, you're not supposed to pass the note but big deal with what it says
writing one that says "can you help me cheat on tommorows exam? From Frank" is just stupid

And the third one I just don't understand. Stick to the lie? What do you mean by this?

a common technique when trying to figure out the truth is baiting. you know/suspect a piece of the truth but you dont know all of it, so you say something like "Stacy said you two made out last night" (and you dont know if they did but suspect it) a response might be "I cant believe she told you that!"
sticking to the lie obviously would have been more benificial to this person here. Granted its trivial in this example, but lets just assume that the person asking had no business in knowing, but now does because the person being asked stupidly came clean


all the things i listed are not absolute truths, i assumed people would have enough common sense to know when they applied, and not need examples of when they did
i guess i was wrong

[Mentalikryst]

You can stay underground (basements without windows work well) or in enclosed rooms with closed or non-existent windows. It also helps to bounce off of 2-3 proxy servers if your doing something Uncle Sam might not like (or don't want them to see). The CIA cannot operate in the USA, but the FBI, NSA, and a few others can. I've heard that the newer satellites (belonging to our government (duh!!)) can read the text on a dime. If you don't want them to track you, don't let them see you. They can tap phones (even cells now) and can easily intercept emails. If you want to send somebody something, encrypt it, compress it and layer it so badly that only the person you are receiving could open it (i.e. myfile.tar.gz.7z.7z.7z.7z, each ".7z" with a different password (even better would be a hash of a password)). Encrypt everything on your computer with PGP (or other military grade encryption software) and set up your computer to reformat itself if a USB drive or something is not inserted at boot. Get a laptop, instead of your desktop. Embed a dormant virus in your file server (a file server is bad in the first place, unless you encrypt all things on it first) so that if anybody from a different MAC address tries to access it it infects itself and destroys everything on itself. Plan a route of escape and live somewhere where there are multiple routes of escape, preferable fire roads, etc. And if possible, don't work at a government job or sign up for anything that requires a NSA background check (like CLEAR at airports). And thank most of it to the Patriot act, allowing warrentless wiretaps and the government to know everything about you!

OR

You can just not worry about it like 99% of the population. Enjoy your day.

Links:
http://www.fas.org/irp/program/process/echelon.htm

[Heath Winchester]

@ The_Computer_Wizard.

Ha! I see. Really I just wanted to see what you'd say about it because you didn't really specify. You're basically just referring to somebody having "tact." To me it seems that you're taking the high ground and saying you feel that people are too stupid to know things like this when most of it's common sense. But you said it like it was profound. My whole point was that people don't have to live being paranoid. I stated in my first paragraph that there are certain things you just shouldn't do out of pure common sense by referencing somebody talking about a bomb in an airport. I thought you might be referring to more than just that. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[The_Computer_Wizard]

@Heath Winchester

i wasnt saying anything profound
i was stating something that i felt was common sense, however some may not know it
it was short, and 3 simple things with almost no explanation because i thought it didnt need any

apparently i was wrong to feel a simple thing could stay simple and not get blown out of proportion