I have immediate family outside the United States, so yes.

Does it bother you that you are being spied on?  Is there anything you can do to minimize it?

I only got a new passport last year, so no.

I wouldn't be so concerned about passports if that's true.  We are tracked in everything we do, and not even buy the government.  We pay a monthly fee and are rewarded with being tracked on a cell phone.  Any search you do online, generates a marker on your profile.  The government doesn't need to tract you, companies do.  They know by the searches on google, youtube, amazon, and likes on facebook, what you like an don't like.  Right now everyone is categorized for, marketing purchases, what you bought online, what you search online, democrat vs. republican, religious vs. atheist.  Passports are the lease of your worries.  Also, it doesn't keep you trapped inside the US boarders, if you want to get inside any other country's boarders, then you need a passport.

Thought I clicked the button non anonymous button

What I meant was that if you don't want to get spied on through a passport, then you are effectively trapped within the U.S.  Your choices are (a) get a passport and submit to spying, or (b) never leave the U.S.

Alright, I understand your point, but what country can to you travel to or from that doesn't issue or require passports?  This isn't a US government conspiracy. IF there was something to track you in a passport, how would it work?  What type of tracking are you thinking they are doing?  If its something that emits a signal, it would require a power source. I don't know of any battery that would lasts the years it would take for your passport to expire.  Wouldn't it make more sense that if they wanted to track you, all of your activity could be pin pointed to the electronic signature of your PC or laptop. If you carry a cell phone it can be traced by GPS or which cell towers you are pinging from. I'm fine with a healthy dose of paranoia, but think about in terms of Ockham's razor...the easiest solution if you are looking to track someone is using the devices everyone carries already to do the job.

Whether or not a passport has something in it so that it can be tracked, how many U.S. citizens carry their passport while in the United States.  My passport sits in my fireproof lockbox with the car title, birth certificate, and a few other important docuмents.  If the government wants to track my passport while it sits at home all day, every day, let 'em at it.

Should I ever travel outside the U.S. again, they would know anyway.

Isn't the whole idea of a passport to keep a track on you? Pass port. What's the problem?

No.  Passport are intended (or, at least, were originally intended) to be a certification of a person's identity and nationality when traveling abroad.  They were not meant to track people.

However, I agree that the OP's concerns seem overblown.