You talk about meaningful differences, but then lump a search in a database with stop and frisk. Either everyone is allowed to use hyperbole or no one is - you can’t have it both ways.
Do you understand the difference between searching an individual you know had committed a crime and searching pool of people that might contain an individual?
No hyperbole needed, and only one way is present :)
I'm hung up on that I, as a member of the general public, can essentially do the same thing when using the service more-or-less as intended.
In talking about searching a pool of people, I'm not really seeing how this is different than using Facebook to search for Criminal McEvildoer's name. The police are searching a pool of people (facebook users) to match a string. It's effectively the same thing, yeah?
The big issue here is that people are making privacy decisions without thinking through the ramifications of the privacy decisions.
No hyperbole needed, and only one way is present :)