Re:There is no loophole .. (Score 1)

you said...it's a long-life acquiesce that all the nations involved have a generally similar goal, now and unto the foreseeable future... Five Eyes / Fourteen Eyes - it makes no difference. What is happening is that the West, in an effort to defend itself against autocratic and hostile governments, is employing the same tactics these governments use to monitor, restrict the flow of information and control their citizens. It represents the erosion of a fundamental principle of the West - the right to individual privacy and freedom from mass surveillance - whether it's the government or private business. At it's logical conclusion we will be subject to the same tactics and control of information and restriction of individual thought and behavior that autocratic governments employ. And end up, as a society, in the same place as the societies we are trying to defend ourselves against. Short version: we will sink to the lowest common denominator of human behavior