Phone tapping is history...

These days you think you can do what you like with a little laptop or a safely private computer? Think again. At the very moment you are reading this, someone is recording your browsing habits, for commercial or a host of national security reasons (not all of them bad). A student at UMass Dartmouth was investigated for ordering a book from a library because it had been flagged. But these are defensive things. The Chinese have used a set of hackers to tap into foreign sensitive information.
With VoIP the big thing on the horizon, phonetapping is history - all the tapper needs is a good hacker to get to all your information.
Is there a defense? Or is it really something we need to be concerned about? Not really, the usual bunch of phishers and other cyber fraudsters are taken care of by installing the usual tools, SpyBot is highly recommended as is Panadasoftware's online activesacn. Zonealarm firewall is reasonably good as well.
As far as the government is concerned, wouldnt worry unless you are a rabid anti-establishment type or some one hell bent on causing mischief. Surveillance is here to stay and the sooner we get used to it the better. What might be a good idea is to put in some safeguards to make sure some enterprising criminal or jihadi doesn't get hold of out information!