Comment "Mass" surveillance isn't always a bad thing (Score 1) 239
Mass surveillance isn't always a bad thing: it's only bad if the means to surveil is restricted to a privileged class. What if the mass surveillance is ubiquitous, where the means to surveil is available to anyone with motive? In such a modified world of mass surveillance, there are strong potential benefits that can emerge, not universally bad ones. We can already see some of the benefits of such a shift in the ability of citizens to use mobile devices to surveil public police misbehavior. Now imagine if that was the rule rather than an exception? What if all the data snarfed up by the NSA was available to anyone with the desire to sift through it?
Don't mindlessly try to end "mass" surveillance out of fear of the ruling class; instead change who has access to it. Ending mass surveillance entirely is the Luddite response to what is fundamentally a social problem.