First of all almost everything people do online is being logged by some company. Companies provide you with a "free" service in exchange you "agree" to share you data with them. Given that any of these companies can get a request from the government to view your data without your knowledge you have to assume that it can and does happen on a limited bases. That data can be any files you have store with them, emails, voice mail, location data, etc. These are just what can happen if everyone follows the law. There are also case of gov. employees or employees of private companies that may violate the law and look at your data.
e.g.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ls-spied-on-love-interests/?intcmp=latestnews
Employees working at online storage companies have the ability to read your files even if you think they are safe because they are encrypted using their provided software.
https://www.dropbox.com/help/27/en
Like most online services, we have a small number of employees who must be able to access user data for the reasons stated in our privacy policy (e.g., when legally required to do so). But that's the rare exception, not the rule. We have strict policy and technical access controls that prohibit employee access except in these rare circumstances. In addition, we employ a number of physical, technical, and heuristic security measures to protect user information from unauthorized access.
Most of the internet standards for secure encrypted communications were developed using standards set by NIST and some believe the standards are weak due to "cooperation" with the NSA.
http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2013/09/on-nsa.html
If the SSL standard is truly compromised that means the NSA can easily listen in to even supposedly secure internet communications like you would use for online banking account or secure VPN connection without spending a lot of computer time to decrypt it.
That out of the way. Most people are concerned with the crooks and kids that put spyware on your devices. Like Miss Teen USA. If you start with a "clean" device then the way you get hacked is clicking on the wrong webpage or viewing bad email with links to hostile websites, or program attachments. The net is litter with them. It isn't often clear how to avoid all of them. First never run a program that ANYONE emails you, unless you requested the program, even then you should scan for viruses. The next step is painful. Turn off all advance feature of your web browser such as activeX, Java. The problem with this is many websites just won't work. I have to then decide if you believe it is a safe site and you really want to view it or pass. Even trusted sites like this one can be infected, without DBK's knowledge, so even if it is legit, you may be infected. We live in an unsafe world, but most people DGAS.
So if you let someone borrow you phone, tablet or computer, with one click they can put spyware on your device!
"Only the paranoid survive." Andrew Grove
