We elect our representative (partly) for this reason. One of the advantages of a parliamentary democracy is that members of the parliament could in theory be cl

We elect our representative (partly) for this reason. One of the advantages of a parliamentary democracy is that members of the parliament could in theory be cleared for full access to information and then could in theory provide the needed oversight. One of the issues for me about the way that GCHQ in the UK and the NSA in the US operate is that this democratic oversight has either been absent or has been ignored. Furthermore the massive data collection programs that these agencies run will allow them to manipulate politicians (which I assume is already done). Also the oversight measures that have been proposed so far are in the UK are totally laughable.