[e12e]

There might be some deceased cell phone owners in Yemen that might disagree.

But in general, yes, spying on foreign nations have always been illegal, and always considered to be inevitable.

On the other hand, with the information sharing across borders (NSA spies on UK citizens, MI6 spies on US citizens) -- this line has already been blurred (Or for a less "redundant" example than the UK, Swedish and Norwegian intelligence services have had a rather incestuous, illegal secret relationship for a long time).

All that aside: a state where the electorate fear the elected, rather than the other way around (or; where the elected takes steps to act on their fear of the electorate) is no longer a democracy.

[e12e]

I'm reminded of this 2015 story from The Intercept, about how all this started (which apparently haven't been submitted to hn before):

"GCHQ AND ME – My Life Unmasking British Eavesdroppers" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11265969