by Terrence Aym

Created on: January 06, 2013   Last Updated: January 07, 2013

Billions of people use cell phones. Many millions are being spied upon—by their phone. One of them may be you.

What's worse, your phone may be spying on you even when it's turned off.

Unfortunately, as fast as electronic technology has grown, privacy issues have grown with it. A tipping point has been reached according to some privacy experts. One IT security professional even claims the former East German secret police spied on their countrymen less than some American corporations, and the federal government, spy on US citizens.

Americans: the most spied upon people in the world

If you're an American, congratulations. You live in the land of the free...and the spied upon.

As technology leaps exponentially ahead from one generation to the next it seems that Americans' privacy is diminishing just as quickly.  

Think you're immune from Big Brother? According to the statistics compiled by the ACLU, country, state and federal law enforcement agencies made a shocking 1.5 million legal requests for data from the cellphone accounts of private citizens. Those requests were not made over the space of several years, but just in 2011.

Recently. Sprint Mobile admitted to the news media that during the years leading up to 2010 more than 8 million requests from law enforcement agencies at every level of government has requested private information regarding GPS records the company had archived on its customers phones.

Despite assurances by American cellular phone companies, auto manufacturers, merchants, and Internet service providers (ISPs), a disturbingly long history exists that all the companies divulge customers' private information when any individual or agency claiming to represent law enforcement requests data. Many times. according to privacy experts, sensitive information is released without the weight of a court subpoena.

Tracking chips, technology appearing everywhere

Currently, the data collected by your cellphone, ISP, manufacturer of vehicles with tracking chips in them (soon to become ubiquitous under a new federal mandate), and other consumer items embedded with radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips can be accessed by aw enforcement officers of any jurisdiction, including internationally, any U.S. intelligence agency, insurance companies, including yours, attorneys, courts, plaintiffs in law suits…the list is growing.

If you are a victim of identity theft, the criminal with possession of your social security number, credit cards drivers license

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