How does this happen? Are THEY watching what we do online ?

[little princess]

All it takes is one little image from facebook on some page you visit and they'll know you were there. If you go to a site that has advertizing, that advertiser knows you were there. Then when you show up on another page that has ads from that same advertiser (or an affiliate of theirs), they know where you've been.

It's all linked together. Google knows what searches you've done. They know where your android phone is and where it goes. They scan your gmail. Some might even say that google knows you better than you know yourself. Other advertising entitles aren't that far behind google.

The government isn't technically watching everything you do online, but it does record it. Then if something triggers an interest in you, they can go back and scan what you've done and determine if you any sort of a threat. They also record all your phone calls and if they can later get a court approval they can go back and listen to them for anything incriminating or suspicious.

If you think you're paranoid, just think how paranoid the government is.