Cradle of Surveillance

... which gives carte blanche to the American authorities to wire-tap citizens, extract and retain data for as long as they deem necessary. Countries like Russia and China have huge networks of special forces who have unlimited and unrestricted access to personal data. Europe has long been embroiled in an arduous debate on how to balance the conflicting needs of surveillance and respect for individual privacy while fighting terrorist threat, and has yet to reach any solid consensus. Surveillance is no doubt a gross violation of the right to privacy, but it is all but impossible to picture our life in any other ...