Along the lines of govt. paranoia...
I introduced GIS technology to my place of business a few years back. In particular, I showed the owners how by using the zip code info we got for each transaction, I could show where our guests were coming from. With that I could get the demographics for those areas, and then I could look at similar places around cities such as Austin, Houston, and DFW. Of interest were the places where we weren't getting visitation, but yet the demographics were the same.
I didn't realize it at the time, but when we took this data to our ad agency, they got all excited. Apparently, via digital cable, you can target ads to specific zip codes within a designated marketing area. So rather than pay to put ads all over Houston, we could just purchase for a specific area. It ended up saving us several tens of THOUSANDS of dollars in the ad budget.
I thought that was cool, but then I heard the ad execs bragging about the possibility of being able to target the INDIVIDUAL viewer via digital cable. And it wasn't like this was that far away...
So, not only can they look in your backyard, they can look at what you are watching on TV. And it's possible that one day in the not-so-distant future, you may be watching your TV when, during a commercial break, it blurts out, "hey, [insert name here], why not try this excellent cigar from [insert cigar brand here]. Give us a call!"
Ah, the 21st century is going to be so interesting!