I agree with most of your premises and do agree that, unless you have real reason to believe so (a la Snowden) that the government is unlikely to be targeting y

I agree with most of your premises and do agree that, unless you have real reason to believe so (a la Snowden) that the government is unlikely to be targeting you (or me specifically). Have said that, some degree of angst about inadvertently become a target, despite my relative unremarkable public presence, is warranted. Consider the following... On Facebook, I post a comment for my friends that says something like, "My kid walked an entire mile to the park and back all by himself, too! A good haul for a 10 year old!" The government comes and collects that semi-public posting. Some in the government may consider that abuse (there are cases where overzealous government officials have indeed made that determination). Guess what? If data collection and analytics are sufficient, I may well be referred to the local child protective services. While it's not the same as the directed anger of the United States government against Snowden, it would potentially cause irreparable harm to my family nonetheless. Technology has the potential to enable economies of scale in bringing unwarranted intrusions to the least of us. Connect that with an increasingly paternalistic government and even mere mortals like myself have real reason to be deeply concerned. TL;DR Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me :-) [Editted for spelling and minor clarity]