Is a Mac safe from government Peeking or this?

[kyle]

We believe that some bad trojan? or whatever it is has been taken on by our entire houseful of regular pc's and laptops. It's Windows XP and 7. One of them got so irritated when I discovered it, that locked up all ways to access the internet, and froze up all programs. Then another pc gave me my first locked up blue screen, which I've never had since using XP, for 10+years. On two computers, I got them to work, after lots of trial and error, but they're definetly not the same.
So, it sounds funny, but in this world, I guess anything is possible, is a Apple Mac safe from either government, military, or browser spying (such as Yahoo, via employees)?
I guess it's not called Yahoo, "browser"., but just called "Yahoo".

[Andrea]

I suggest wearing a tinfoil hat while computing in the future.

[Bob]

Well considering that it is technically impossible for any of those entities to access your computer at an application level without sparking a huge revolt from privacy hysteric personae, I think we can assume that Apple and Microsoft aren't going to be intruded through those measures.

However, They could totally be spying on our traffic at a transport/network layer, however, due to encryption methods, they most likely couldn't get access to anything useful other than your network header information.

To answer your question, it doesn't matter what system you are using when it comes down to networking... Routers/Switches don't discriminate.

[THE BANNIBAL ONE]

The trojan virus and newer ones can take over your computer.
They actually rent out people's computers,use Browser Protect.
Do not track,Adblock Plus,and any other download that stops tracking cookies.
also use some type of anti.spyware and an anti.virus software.
You can try a lot of free downloads to see which you like best.
whats needed is a federal law to prevent companies from selling our private info.

[DunbarPappy®ϟϟ]

Yours is a 2 part Q:
1) Privacy
2) Security
Both are hard to attain and equally hard to maintain.
1) Since all devices that interconnect using the Internet use the same 'mechanisms' (TCP/IP); and browsers come with liberal settings (to give users "that rich Internet experience"), it's been determined by very smart people other than yourself what you should be seeing and doing over those mechanisms; and they have figured out ways to monitor where you go and what you do when you get there, plus influence your future behavior.
Unless you modify your browser(s) automatic behavior, they will always have this influence over you.**

2) Your computer symptoms indicate an infection by one of the 'rogue' malware items that plague Windows users, but Apple has been lately getting the same garbage.
Giving us a name of the malware that's shut you out would allow more specific removal instructions.

I use Linux and never get this crap, but I've seen thousands of PC users here on Yahoo in the same boat as you.

** Does the Government monitor what everyone is doing?
You decide:
Jul 30, 2012 https://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a...urity.html
"A former NSA official...William Binney...[accused] NSA Director...Alexander [of] playing a “word game” and that the NSA was...collecting e-mails, Twitter writings, internet searches and other data...and indexing [them].
He said the NSA began building its data collection system...prior to 9/11, and then used the terrorist attacks...as the excuse to launch the data collection project. ... Binney was contradicting statements made...by Alexander, who told the crowd...that his agency “absolutely” does not maintain files on Americans.
But ACLU staff attorney Alex Abdo...noted that a gaping loophole in the law...allows the agency to do dragnet surveillance...and hold onto that data.

New Justice Department Documents Show Huge Increase in Warrant-less Electronic Surveillance http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=30619