Internet snooping

Snooping is the act of intentionally or unintentionally gaining access to another's data for malicious or non-malicious intent. Snooping includes gaining access to someone's e-mail, monitoring telephone calls, and tracking another's World Wide Web use. One can even monitor the characters printed on a monitor's screen, from a distance, with relatively little equipment or cash outlay. Governments are far and away the most voracious collectors, users and, sometimes, abusers of personal and private information. The USA government, although one of the best in the world, operates in a legal environment that fails to protect privacy adequately. It collects too much personal information about its people, keeps that information too long, and sometimes uses it to invade privacy, or worse.