Comment by toufka

As Snowden stated, the data on nearly everyone alive's habits is kept 'safe and secret' by policy alone, and not by any technical or legal controls. There are few if any technical or legal limits to what the United States government collects about not only the world, but also its citizens. As policy changes, from period to period or president to president, the data too will be subject to ever-changing political controls. If no technical or legal safeguards are installed, then at some inevitable point along that pendulum swing, those in charge of keeping that data 'safe and secret' will not have your best interests in mind and will use it to harm your interests in pursuit of their own: "Turnkey tyranny."