The CIA. The DIA. The NSA. The FBI. The DHS. Even the IRS. Our government employs a whole alphabet of agencies that go by TLAs (Three Letter Abbreviations) and those agencies spend a disturbing amount of time watching what we're doing. Are they watching you?

It's a sad fact that people who value preparedness and self-reliance don't always have the best relationship with the federal government, which often resents the fact we don't trust it to look after us. The government likes people to depend on it for everything, and preppers don't.

If you're a prepper and you've joined any discussions online, formed a local group or done anything else that might attract the government's attention, you might be under surveillance.

If you are under surveillance, it's vital that you know this. If you know you're being watched then you can take steps to make sure the surveillance doesn't compromise your prepping.

Of course you should pay attention to personal security anyway, but avoiding surveillance means taking that to a much higher level – it isn't something you want to be doing if you don't have to. So how can you spot surveillance?

I'll say this right now: If you're being watched by a professional intelligence agency, confirming the surveillance is going to be hard. These people have advanced equipment and, more importantly, good training.

They put a lot of effort into not being detected by the people they're watching, so you have a difficult task ahead of you. It isn't impossible, though; with some effort, you can detect – and even evade – most types of surveillance.

Cyber Surveillance

Most of us do a lot online now.

Whether it's for banking, shopping or just keeping in touch with people, the internet plays a big role in our lives.

That means surveillance of your online activity can tell an agency a lot about you.

Automated software can build network diagrams showing your contacts; intelligence analysts can then exploit those.

Knowing what you're buying can give clues about what you're planning, or flag you for a list of people with resources that can be confiscated or weapons that can be seized. Even checking a route online can tell  where your bugout location is.