> I can't quite take the step into believing that it's probably happening, because that way lies tin foil hats.

I think it was Wired that broke the story about AT&T's secret fiber-splitting rooms several years before they were later confirmed by Snowden's leaks. Given the entities and sheer amount of resources in play (or available to be used for that sort of thing), it's not nearly as tinfoil-hattish as, say, HAARP.