Are we being watched?

Every now and then someone will bring up to me that apple can read into our conversations, listen to our phone calls and that the NSA can access anything they want to on our computers. I always wondered how true this is, I mean I'm sure they have the ability to do such a thing but I'm 99.9% sure all of that is illegal. With that in the back of my head I assumed that I could just shrug off the idiots that tell me my texts and calls are being watched. I then stumbled across this article talking about how Snowden released private documents (must not be that private) about how the NSA plans to use malware to be able to expand its hacking capabilities to the publics personal computers. The documents released describe a technology that allows the NSA to break into any targeted computer and file through any data they may be interested in looking at.

So what you're telling me is that my little 4 digit lock code on my phone isn't really keeping people out? Can't really say I'm shocked. I've heard different things on this, some people outraged that the NSA has the ability to basically watch their every more, some people say they aren't really worried about it and that the NSA would be useless if they didn't do stuff like this. I am not picking a side, what I can say is this is not legal, but if it helps keep the country safe all together can I really be opposed to it? The troubling part is there was no media coverage about this until Snowden leaked the documents so it is clear they did not want this getting out to the public. If it is going to help keep the country safe why hide it from everyone and look sketchy. The link below goes into more tech savy detail about how the NSA prepares to watch your every move. comment below with thoughts after you go delete all your embarrassing pictures on your computer.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/03/12/nsa-plans-infect-millions-computers-malware