WHY SHOULD YOU BE WORRIED ABOUT IT?
The government has shown consistently that it couldn’t care less about the obligation to obtain a warrant before listening to your phone calls. Almost every administration since before the invention of the telephone has recorded the conversations of the public. As technology improves—especially on the back end, where computers capable of analyzing spoken conversation are growing more and more sophisticated—the government’s capability to actively monitor our conversations will only grow. With that increasing technical sophistication will come the temptation to use it. Let’s be clear: The government does not care about the law. Given the capability to monitor your phone calls and Internet traffic, it will do so.
Others who might be wiretapping you could be doing so for any number of malicious reasons. Corporations could record your voice for later use as biometric identification—a deeply flawed security system. Individuals who go to the trouble to install taps on your phone and computer never have nonscary motivations. At best, they are attempting to capture sensitive financial or identity information. At worst, they are trying to build a profile of you so that when they finally kidnap you and tie you up in a meat locker they have something to start a conversation about.