The cat, apparently, is out of the bag. For years many of us speculated about just how much snooping government agencies like the NSA and GCHQ were engaged in with regard to the general public. Now we know. Somewhat. No doubt there are plenty of secrets we have not heard about and more than even Edward Snowden did not manage to uncover, but at least now we can confirm what many people have suspected for years. They’re listening to us and it seems like they have an insatiable appetite for it – tracking us, profiling us and seemingly wanting to know every detail of our lives. Here are some of the most surprising activities that the NSA and other spy agencies are involved in in the name of “national security.”

1. Friends and Allies

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Despite all the promises and cozy talk about our allies, it turns out the NSA is spying in them as well. I suppose we would all expect them to be spying on countries like Iran or North Korea, but Germany? The NSA and their bosses are bringing a whole new meaning to the word “nosy.” And it turns out that allies like Germany were not all that happy to find out that they were being spied on. There is talk of setting up new private communication networks in Europe with the idea of keeping foreign spies from tapping into conversations of European leaders. Trust is something that takes a long time to build and just a few seconds to destroy.