[dwaltrip]

Intelligence agencies automatically gathering and storing all data generated by mankind is very different from manual surveillance of an individual's house. I find these types of comparisons rather misleading. The changing nature of technogoly and the increasing tendency for highly personal data to be generated and then vacuumed up by the NSA & friends strongly implies, to me at least, that, in order to protect the sanctity of the individual's personhood as well as democracy itself, this data needs to withheld/protected from powerful institutions. Especially those that can kill you/lock you in jail. Even if the data isn't "owned" by the indiviudal in the traditional sense.