[CaptainZapp]

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

What has that to do with his comment?

For starters he was referring to the East German Stasi.

Nothing to do with Nazis, Hitler, or the third Reich.

In addition: Many people think that whenever Nazi (or equivalent) is mentioned you lose according to Godwin's Law.

This is not so, however, when the reference is actually related to the discussion. For example: You may bring up Nazis in a discussion about totalitarian regime, or Fascism, without falling into Godwin's Law trap.

And to conclude: In a discussion about a device, which enables snooping on a large scale a referenced to the GDR's stasi is certainly not out of line.