[hannibal5]

There are several different things going on and people seem to mix them together.

1. Governments spying other governments and foreign companies.

2. Government mass surveillance of their citizens, and citizens of other countries if possible.

3. Government using the Internet to target some small subset of their citizens.

[lignuist]

While these of course are different thing, do you think that they are not related?

[hannibal5]

They are technologically related but you can't address them in same ethical framework.

For one thing, I think classical spying between governments is just good thing. Knowing what other sovereign actors do and think without filters removes suspicion. Government officials getting spied on just shows incompetence from those go spied and they should up their game. I think security agencies in many countries will now update their policies and get funding for doing so. It's also better understood outside intelligence communities that everyone outside Five Eye countries is considered outsider.

Also. Mass surveillance of citizens is very different from targeted surveillance of small number of suspects. Mass surveillance changes the power balance in democracy. Targeted surveillance of select number of people fits into normal intelligence work.