This may be true, but it completely fails to distinguish between 1) the type of regime implementing the surveillance - autocratic vs democratic, and 2) offensiv

This may be true, but it completely fails to distinguish between 1) the type of regime implementing the surveillance - autocratic vs democratic, and 2) offensive vs defensive. It is necessary for any society to do intelligence gathering to defend itself, or it will soon be overwhelmed by an autocratic one. In contrast, when the entire state apparatus is turned to the goals of a single leader or party, and to suppressing any dissent and plundering other countries, it is quite a different affair. While the US has institutionalized racism in it's police forces, this is being openly fought. In contrast, China massacres thousands in Tianamen square and actively wipes it from the record, and currently imprisons over a million, it is a far different story. False equivalence actively undermines truth. (NB: the current US administration is doing everything it can to turn the US into an autocratic state, i.e., where the entire state apparatus serves the personal goals of administrators. However, it is actually the relative independence of the various agencies and branches of govt, including the 17 Intel agencies that are helping thwart those tendencies.)