We had way more privacy, before the advent of computers. Hey, I started with electronics as a hobby
in the very early 70's as a kid, worked on televisions as a teenager, graduated from college with a degree
in electronics, spent some time at TI in Houston, built all of my own computers, ham radio operator, so I
LOVE technology & gadgets, but, with the advancement of said technology, we've seen a more than proportional
drop in our privacy. With governments (at least in the USA, I have no idea about other countries), it is so much
easier to ILLEGALLY collect data, but just scooping up EVERYTHING, and running it through server farms (like the
huge one out west that takes so much water to keep cool, something the west doesn't have a lot of anyway), and
then something pops out, and they will use THAT as a basic to get a warrant to "legally" spy on someone. In the
USA, it's to the point that you are guilty, until proven innocent, and you have to exhaust all of your money & time
to prove otherwise. Considering the unlimited resources the government has, that is a very hard task.
And in some cases, WE are partially to blame. Fire up pretty much any app on a mobile device, because you want
to find something, an address, an item, and we willfully "allow app to know your location". This is saved in a database,
"for your convenience", so they can push things of interest to you. Oh how nice! All the while, you know good and well,
the government is somewhere saving all of this, and using it for whatever means "they" find necessary. I know it would
wreck civilization, but sometimes I wonder if the human race would be partially better off if an EMP due to the sun popped
over us.