[General Questions and Answers] tearlach2:
Simple Answer Yes, everyone is

Long Answer: Still yes, your cellphone is specifically tapped with location gps located at base-band level as all cellphones are (think of e911) and all calls are recorded by the network doing the initial routing of your call (example: not at the Verizon tower itself, but the points where many Verizon towers interconnect their call data for distribution onto the phone network (the switch point). Also many organizations have back doors into the cell phones, most notably google apple and "those" they freely or coercively have to give everything to) but there are ways to defeat this and it is to flood the Government with false data, here is how:

When I or any of my friends or family and everyone I can tell make a phone call or send an email (and I've posted this all over the internet and Facebook, G+) too, I always tell them to drop as many catch words as possible right at the beginning of EVERY call, every email (emails are easy just use a sig that contains the catch words). See the government doesn't have a person who looks at things, it just has computers algorithms which catch all of your connections then starts forming link chains (the so called metadata) based on those connections, then flags certain groups and individuals for further review by actual people, basically they want to know who everyone knows (think facebook, which they also use for this, but on a much grander scale). We are all automatically put into social link chains by all calls, emails we send, websites we visit, webchats we make, even letters we send through the mail and things we order online, however the priority each individual is given as a "threat" changes determined by a number of factors. Also; our connections (the other people we connect to) rise on the "threat" assessment scale as our own "threat" assessment goes up. This is actually a very simple thing to do for the government and many private organizations such as google etc help out and also do it for their own commercial reasons. It is also simple to defeat this in what the venerable RMS (and other freedom minded individuals) describe as overwhelming the system with fake data to make EVERYONE look like a threat, that does effectively break this part of domestic surveillance apparatus.

As an example, when I start a phone call to anyone, I drop a series of words which are automatically detected. I will let your imagination run wild and not post what specific words I use are here because I don't know the terms exactly of this website but I will give a few of many allusions:

I start by listing "illegal" drugs (which I don't use)

I add in different devices that go boom (I'm talking class 10 devices). (which I won't use or make I REPEAT I'M PEACEFUL)

I do talk about my factual and legal gun ownership. (I repeat I'm peaceful)

I make various references to groups which are on watch lists. (which I'm not a part of, I REPEAT I'M PEACEFUL)

I make seditious but non specific comments about the united states (look up sedition if you need) (which I don't plan to do, but I pray something does change soon, I REPEAT, I'M PEACEFUL)

I mention my Christianity.

I use tor for reading Wikipedia along with many other legal and only legal uses (using tor is an auto-upgrade for you in "their" system, they watch all nodes), though I know the really good internet hackers have figured out how to hide themselves on the entrance side. And I'm not talking about VPNs, those are easily (and instantly) defeated by the gov, I'm talking about the ring chains true hackers make that really disguise when and what origin IP entered a specific node, but I digress.

I encrypt anything and everything I can, I use Linux, I download from torrent sites, I download legal files which describe things which aren't legal, I post legal and funny comments on /r and /pol. I leave my wireless router with a secondary OPEN guest network (totally legal in the US, which allows others to do things possibly illegal, but cannot be held against me in court, this is established case law, just like how a library or school can't be held accountable for what someone does on it's free network)

Basically I do anything and everything I can to make my threat level MAX without actually doing ANYTHING illegal, and I encourage everyone to do the same. This has a few good effects, it makes everything they could use against you in court questionable because of the sheer flood of BS, it makes "them" waste "their" time and resources on "their" absolutely illegal domestic surveillance operations, it frustrates local police when they start a parallel investigation, traffic stop, etc based on the illegal tips (WHICH THEY ABSOLUTELY AND ADMITTEDLY DO) receive from "them" and then find nothing, and it gives you the satisfaction of fighting back in some way against the illegal surveillance state.

Warnings: stay away from making specific targeted threats, STAY AWAY FROM KIDDIE PORN and F*CK YOU IF YOU ARE A PEDO, stay peaceful yourself and obey the legal laws especially felony laws (spend some time to learn the actual laws to begin with so you too can have peace of mind as you do this and don't make mistakes so start at CFR Title 1 and continue to the end, I did, regulations aren't always in the right or logical place so you have to read all of it). Move to a west coast state where the laws are more libertarian. AZ is pretty good, as are CO, NV and NM and the states directly north of those.

I end with, have fun, 1's and 0's are free, don't bother joining the libertarian party but BE a libertarian, and learn proper gun safety and practice is the only thing that increases accuracy. Read a book on horticulture, animal husbandry and water collection. I could prove to be useful.