Be careful what you’re saying in cyberspace because the government may be listening.

As the great media critic Robert McChesney has noted, one of the downsides of our Digital Age is that it has made snooping so much easier.

Not only are companies following our every click and purchase, the government is also having a field day at our expense

According to the ACLU, “federal law enforcement agencies are increasingly monitoring Americans’ electronic communications, and doing so without warrants, sufficient oversight, or meaningful accountability.”

The feds now have the capacity to put the functional equivalent of high-tech phone taps on all our electronic communications. And they’re jumping at the opportunity to use that capacity. Tens of thousands of Americans are being spied on right now, a more than four-fold increase over the last five years.

If you’re among the snooped upon, the feds are now grabbing the phone numbers of your incoming and outgoing calls, the addresses of the e-mails your are sending and receiving, your instant messaging records, and some info on your social networking and the websites you’re visiting.

Big Brother is here, and J. Edgar Hoover is jealous.

For more information, see the ACLU’s report at http://tinyurl.com/cbg5jas.

If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his story “Romney on 60 Minutes: Kiss the Safety Net Goodbye."

Follow Matthew Rothschild @mattrothschild on Twitter