At this point I just assume anything I do online is leaving breadcrumbs that somewhere, someone has swept up into some massive database. While I haven't heard direct evidence that the NSA or any other government agency has a backdoor into Android, it honestly would not surprise me.
Let's just say if you do IT stuff you understand it's technologically possible. They can push OTA updates to your device, get your exact location, all the smart Google Now features, so why not something more?
If you pay attention when you type the search even in Firefox's Google search bar, information is being sent as you type (for search suggestion), they not only know what you sent but every single letters you typed as well.
People doesn't realize that Apple is probably is a worse offender, the fact that they never talk about it and they have a close source system gives them less scrutinization, but you can just take a look at patents they filed related to information gathering, particularly biometric gathering, and I'm not just talking about fingerprints.
I use Cerberus which have the ability to hide in the phone, exist through factory resets, I can remotely gather location, record sounds, take photo, sim card and phone information. It's no where compared to what Google and Apple can do.
It's not really Google that you should be concerned about, but the backbone of the network and where it goes which we don't really have control over. At least with Android you gets choices, if you don't want to use Google services you can use AOSP, although still tied to some proprietary aspects is still going to give you better battery life and less data usage.
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