Hastily passed 45 days after 9/11 in the name of national security, the Patriot Act was the first of many changes to surveillance laws that made it easier for the government to spy on ordinary Americans by expanding the authority to monitor phone and email communications, collect bank and credit reporting records, and track the activity of innocent Americans on the Internet. While most Americans think it was created to catch terrorists, the Patriot Act actually turns regular citizens into suspects.
Government spying capabilities are vast, including everything from general hacking techniques learned from Germany to a new FBI domestic wireless surveillance unit to the massive spy campaign on Occupy Wall Street run by the post-9/11 Department of Homeland Security.
American tech companies like Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Google and various mobile carriers are reportedly turning over user information.
Meanwhile, the NSA hired Israeli contractors to bug the telecommunications network and is in the process of building a $2 billion spy center.
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