Barry Ritholtz summarizes the currently known scope of information being gathered by the U.S. government in his post, How Much Is the US Government Spying on Americans.
There is an extensive list of the ways and means of data gathering in the long article. There are multiple dozens of links to other articles if you want more background on any specific point he makes.
Here’s a good summary:
The American government is in fact collecting and storing virtually every phone call, purchases, email, text message, internet searches, social media communications, health information, employment history, travel and student records, and virtually all other information of every American.
That’s just about any use of technology that goes outside your computer.
The article claims the NSA has a back-door code into the Android operating system. If true, that means they can hack any one of about 3/4ths of the smart phones in existence.
The FBI want a backdoor to all software. Various reports over the years that I’ve read make the same claim as one specific article mentioned in this article – the NSA has had a backdoor to Windows software for a long time.
Mr. Ritholtz article appears to be well over 4,000 words long.
If you want a brief recap, check out Tracy Coenen’s summary article, All the Ways the U.S. Government Spies on Americans. She has a mere 26 bullet points, every one of which is unsettling.