[bananapub]

> Casual spying on citizens is new to Western governments (unless you count East Germany as Western).

depends on "casual" and "new" I guess? Echelon is a dragnet from the 70s, and at least the US, UK and Australian governments spied lots on anti-war protestors and environmentalists and civil rights campaigners and trade unionists. Some Australians wrote a book called "Our ASIO Files" (ASIO is the Australian internal spy/security agency) based on being surveilled during the 80s.

> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Dam_Youth_Escort

did you not read the article you've linked? this was never deplpoyed.