It can be a lot worse. There was a huge surveillance scandal in Poland last year. Someone wired particular restaurant used by politicians and recorded tons of i

It can be a lot worse. There was a huge surveillance scandal in Poland last year. Someone wired particular restaurant used by politicians and recorded tons of incriminating conversations (Polish Central Bank governor giving support to ruling political party in next elections by fudging budget numbers and so on). Results: -police, prosecutor and intelligence service raided headquarter of newspaper that broke the story, assaulting and beating editor-in-chief http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27945687 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27945687 -prosecutor immediately opened investigations into illegal wiretapping -full two months later prosecutor was forced to open investigation into actual content of tapes, this investigation was naturally quickly killed off. -head of government and political party implicated in leaked tapes was punished by ... jokes, he was awarded presidency over whole fucking European Council -new law passed making audio recordings All-party consent, and outlawing using as evidence any and all recordings made without court order :-) instant immunity from further wiretaps.