Hate to fan the fires of your paranoia folks but, monitoring of the population has been going on for years. If you are not of a criminal mind or intent why sweat it?
The Patriot Act just made some of this data collection a little less transparent, and a little more "front Page". "They" Meaning NSA, FBI, NRO, NIMA, and yeah there are others have been monitoring just about all the electronic communications around the globe for decades. (Don't forget who actualy built the backbone of the Internet...)
The Patriot Act simply allows them to use what they gathered, and act on data collected without warrants and probable cause. Something the feds could never do before. Which has brought some of the data collection facts out of the closet and has spawned a number of organizations to start screaming foul.
BUT, does this mean Big Brother is out to get you? NO, if your biggest crime is smoking some bud, speeding, and cheating on your taxes, who cares? They sure don't.
Besides, it takes a special kind of arrogance to believe yourself so important as to garner the attentions of the federal government, to believe they really give a crap about your porn collection or the $20K you have "forgotten" to claim on last years taxes... My point is there is nothing new here. Same old stuff, just a little more visable and now there are some organizations who want to feel special talking about it like it's new info... Quit reading so much freakin Aldus Huxley, Stop replaying the Matrix, go for a walk, get some sunlight and sell your X-Files collection...
My .02
