We all know this, but in the past someone probably wasn't going to go through thousands of your comments unless you've really pissed them off. It's worth realising how much lower the activation energy is these days.
Yeah, it takes just one carefully worded comment to turn the majority of readers in this forum against you, particularly if the comment does not align with the majority's point of view. Definitely a place with a low melting point where my HN Karma, consistently takes a beating :)
There are emergent effects of technologies getting cheaper and more accessible.
Surveillance was always possible but it was expensive because a person or two had to literally watch a suspect. So it was rare in practice and suspects had to be chosen carefully.
Mass surveillance is not new in the sense that surveillance was always possible. What is new is the scope of power it gives to those who can use it.
Yes, and then people wonder why you are a gaping hole in the social media surveillance dragnet with your absence. It took 12 years for me to make my first comment on this account.