[sqrt17]

The point here is that Singaporean authorities, while enacting a huge amount of surveillance, still feel accountable to their constituents and try to make the best use of the data they get. The attitude that you're accountable for the data you collected and that you actually have to do something useful with it (as in, disease prevention, prediction of future economic trends) seems alien to the US where limiting yourself to fighting terrorists (but leaving diseases, angry US nationals with guns, or stupid people with SUVs on the side) is seen as something perfectly rational to do. And a central idea of the surveillance state (as we know it through Orwell and others) is that the state (surveillance or otherwise) is not accountable to its constituents, which is a much older idea but should frighten you just as much as living in a fishbowl.