Mass surveillance has always been around, it's just that today it's much easier to do in volume. In the old days the government paid people to collect and deliv

Mass surveillance has always been around, it's just that today it's much easier to do in volume. In the old days the government paid people to collect and deliver random bits of information which were analyzed by lots of people and so was prone to errors. Today you can automate all of this and do it faster.