YES THEY WOULD, YES THEY ARE
The Governments have been monitoring us since the cold war finished, the equipment that was used to spy on the Soviets are now turned onto the citizens of that nation under a project we know as ECHELON. Now we are slowly being told small sections owhat they want us to become accustomed to like this story in the USA
Australia widens spying powers 14 / 02 / 2006 (click here)
More recent is the development in which the spy agencies have lobbied the writers of operating systems such as Microsoft to leave a back door for the spy agencies to enter your computer system without you knowing;the only thing you might notice is that your system is running slow. Of course it won't be running slow at all, it only seems that way because much of the reources of your system will be re-allocated to the task of the spying Government
Yes a deliberate door of entry into your system, here is a scan of an article in APC magazine March 2006 .
What is ECHELON (CLICK HERE)
Finally they are starting to accustom the public to the spying to the thought that they (the Government spooks) are constantly spying or data mining (CLICK HERE) May 8,2006