Comment by jiantastic

As with most things, I think that it is a trade off. There is a very delicate balance between security and privacy.

Too much surveillance

- General public feels incredibly uncomfortable due to lack of privacy

- An incredibly scary amount of power in the hands of whoever has access to that information ( and who knows what they will do with it )

- Reduced risk of terrorism and security concerns

Too little

- Increased risk of terrorism + massive security concerns due to lack of intelligence ( it's like trying to find a needle in a huge haystack )

- Public feels safe due to perceived increased privacy and yet feels unsafe due to ( potentially ) increased number of terrorist incidents.

It's a rather difficult problem to solve. How can we extract critical security information without invading people's privacy?