The UK has had total access to all communications networks in the UK since WW1.
Defence of the Realm Act 1914 gave vast new powers. HOW (Home Office Warrant) like use was expanded into the 1950's and beyond.
The UK had total mastery of all emerging telco sat systems in the 1960's, CSO Morwenstow/GCHQ Bude.
Irelands telco networks (domestic and all connections in and out) where all well understood.
As internet use, desktop crypto and mobile phone use became more common the UK had a few ideas about how to help with the creation of Government Technical Assistance Centre, later the NTAC (National Technical Assistance Centre).
All mobiles sold in the UK by default have been ready for intercept by design as set out in standards and international standards.
The use of early 1990's voice print technology and a new generation of cell site simulators have allowed the total collection of mobile calls all over UK cities for years.
Consumer grade computers with tame OS, weak default junk consumer grade crypto and expert malware have allowed any domestic computer system to be accessed by default over many years.
Networking anonymity is not an issues for the UK. The only real issues the UK has ever had with communications has been the Soviet Unions correct use of one time pads and number stations since the 1950's.
The SIGMOD initiative (sigint modernisation programme) has ensured the UK will never be without a total understanding of any type network in/out of the UK.
In the past years social media has been as open to courts as ever. OS developers ship the same standard of basic consumer grade protections with their desktop computers and seem as happy as ever to offer voice, keylogging, plain text and other access when requested by a UK court.
Mobile devices have always been and always will be open to any court request for all data, voice, location, images or telco network support to track, log.
Privacy is a useless concept when a UK court demands access in the UK on a UK network or any device sold, used or connected in the UK.
Any fancy imported crypto app layer is reduced to junk with keystrokes or voice been recorded by malware at a hardware or tame lower software/network/OS level.
The same level of access to text and calls will always exist on public/private networks thanks to international standards and all devices sold been intercept ready by design.
OS, networks, social media, telcos will never be a problem in real time for the UK.

Now part of the DRT box, device or dirtboxes ie cell site simulators. Some are fixed-site, tactical trailer ready or man-packable.
What was big for Iraq and Afghanistan is now back for domestic use. Data visualisation, graphs, geospatial maps are all in the mix depending on what is offered. Mix in private databases, purchased data for phone numbers.
The US seems to have been early with it but the US is now finding other nations efforts locally.
The other side is the wired versions for any/all Public Switched Telephone Network efforts.

Re Finding?
"This machine catches stingrays: Pwnie Express demos cellular threat detector" (Apr 21, 2015)
http://arstechnica.com/informa...
Looks for Unauthorized or unknown cell providers, Anomalous or suspicious base stations, IMSI catcher/interceptor identification, Rogue or malicious cellular base stations.

The cell site simulator becomes the tower and depending on the local law enforcement needs will gather voice, data, images, logs, text, gps, calls made.
Voice prints would be the next step. Malware down for software passwords would then allow for plain text as entered no matter the secure app loaded.
The phone trusts the cell site simulator network as it would a telco cell tower. The network between the phone and cell site simulator is wide open at the point.

Before the cell site simulator a court would just ask the telco to track a persons cell phone, account US wide. It worked well and could be accepted in any open court setting as a per person log.
The new cell site simulator count could be how many times a person of interest connects or is logged vs the bulk community collect it all using the cell site simulator 24/7.
A smaller number would be presented to keep the bulk community collection count well hidden.

Classic court allowed telco support would be for one cell number, account or person.
The cellular phone surveillance device becomes a cell tower like device in a community and collects all calls in that area.
The cell site simulator has total access as it forces all mobile phones in the area to connect to it.
Collect it all is how a cell site simulator works for cellular phone surveillance.
A change to bulk collection.

The new hardware should be totally ready for the next mobile standards, no dropping back.
Wonder what the areas around news papers and press offices are like :)
Journalists and people they meet should be very aware of that a log on a map can show. Two people standing next to each other for a short time both with their phones on.

In the past a telco would have to see court paper work to set a number into their system to track and log.
The lack of any new court comment or even telco paperwork is telling. Local law enforcement have moved away from needing local telcos to just collecting it all.
It is now cheaper to log all calls in an area and sort them than to request paper work a person of interest at a city or sate law enforcement level.
A cell phone is now a gps, text, voice print, photo, numbers called and beacon carried around waiting to be logged by local law enforcement...
Parallel construction will now be the on the discovery list for any good legal team.
The other question is why cant local law enforcement officials trust the telcos? What have the telcos done to be bypassed with hardware that has to fake been a cell site?
A real telco could give all the information around the USA as requested and stand in any open court. Are the numbers and accounts under investigation leaking as the court orders are been activated at the telco level?
The final question is what is been sent down to each phone as it is used? State and national tracking malware for any phone is connected in an area of interest?

The US can go back to Project MINARET http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
Project SHAMROCK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
The US like the UK has always had an interest in all communications internally and beyond the USA, UK.
The good news is this is now in the open and generations of crypto experts can finally understand the collaboration between mil/gov and the big telcos.

The US gov reaches out to the bank used. If that bank fails to act then any other bank interconnects to the bank a person of interest uses become interesting.
The accounts are isolated. The bank used is isolated. Any other banks connecting to the bank with the account are isolated.
With the use of ideas like Section 311 the USA Patriot Act account holders and their banks can be traced.
The international financial system then has to select between that isolated bank or U.S. regulators.
The other option is to entice a person of interest to a third country to face rendition.

Re "Those with above secret clearance, who live normal lives, and those without it, who are lied to and treated like "
Thats the new security boondoggle that gets funding and contracts flowing. The seduction of needing a new security clearance.
People in the gov, mil and contractors have seen a huge expansion of their bureaucratic access under a "collect it all" system.
What has changed? The US domestic legal system has now seen more interest by the public asking basic privacy questions since the Church Committee/report days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
A person looking to work for the gov/mil or as a contractor now fully understands that they will be working on domestic generational trap doors, back doors, in collaboration with the big domestic computer brands and with foreign powers.
Collect it all, sort it all. The domestic jobs are waiting... who did you spy on today?

They had great pride in active missile decoy work http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N... and over-the-horizon radar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J...
Now it will be all about tracking online comments and finding who in Australia posted a dual use paragraph.

Re "Next they'll outlaw talking about"
One time pad encryption would {#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER

The "critical infrastructure results in operators overlooking weaknesses in their systems" is to be expected with the removal of local staff on site 24/7 replaced by automated or vast networked systems.
That reduced expensive union staff and allowed a smaller set of skilled workers to do the jobs of many. Great for profits as paying for less workers but the huge networks used might not always be dedicated and hardened or secure.
So vast amounts of maintenance, observation and operational use is expected to move along random networks.
In the past a real person doing shift work sat at a site and had control using a closed network. Now that network might reach a tri state area on many different networks with years of code and complexity.
The huge amounts of cash floating around after incidents is the new boondoggle. The networks need fixing, upgrading and a new cyber bureaucracy can point to cyber intrusions to get more political power, budget growth.
The real fix is in more maintenance, more staff and the correct use of real internal networks.
Working, well understood critical infrastructure is not difficult. Nations around the world can secure their own sites. Low quality networks over vast areas is not the best way to keep thinking about the issue.

The idea goes back to the 1950's with flights been worked out in the early 1990's.
In the 1950's it "accomplish" the different sides talking and working on the ideas.