[adventured]

If we're going to get specific about who is complicit, the vast majority of all people in the US are complicit. They keep electing the same politicians in D.C. (Pelosi, Reid, Boehner, Boxer, Graham, Feinstein, McConnell, McCain etc.), and constantly turn a blind eye to government abuses. Tons of leaders around the world are complicit.

It stands to reason, and should be unsurprising, that the vast majority of all relevant US technology companies would be complicit, seeing as they're under direct forced compliance.

There is broad electorate support for what the NSA does ('keeping America safe from terrorists' - Joe Public), which is why it has escaped an incredible scandal almost entirely un-altered. It's the same reason the Patriot Act still exists, despite the fact that you're historically more likely to die by choking on a hotdog than at the hands of a terrorist.

[mikeash]

Yes, yes, and yes. We should stop blaming government officials for this. For all the flaws of American democracy, we still mostly get the government we (collectively) want.

A lot of techies seem to look around at their fellow techies, see little support for ubiquitous surveillance and other erosions of civil liberties, and assume the general population feels the same. They then conclude that the government is doing this for nefarious reasons against the wishes of the people, and that the solution is to make government more representative of popular sentiment.

As far as I can tell, government is already representative of popular sentiment here. If we want to change these things, we need to convince people in general that change is a good idea.