[bediger4000]

No. By all accounts the French government was already hip deep in intrusive surveillance. They apparently had ramped up surveillance twice in the last 12 months. It didn't help.

So, there's some ulterior motive for wanting dragnet surveillance, and it's common to a lot of governments, including US and UK. What is that motive?

[hanniabu]

Call me crazy, but I always saw it as a way not to monitor terrorism, although that's what they use it for now, but for in the future to ensure they can thwart revolutions within the country. Take away civilian weapons, give yourself the ability to monitor, give yourself the ability to break the law when the 'county'(read governed) is threatened. Check off all of these points and in a few years when robotics capabilities start ramping up, it'll be nearly impossible for a revolution to occur.

[bediger4000]

How do we keep "impossible for a revolution to occur" from turning in to "impossible to dislodge an incumbent from a market"? Or even further devolving into "protecting all corporate entities from market threats"? I see that devolution as almost inevitable, given how we've seen the US DoD used to protect corporate interests as well as societal interests.