My comment was specifically directed at the mistaken notion that governments now have less information about individuals than they did before, not about the rep

My comment was specifically directed at the mistaken notion that governments now have less information about individuals than they did before, not about the repressive acts they're willing to perform on any individual of interest to them. I agree,virtually no modern citizen of a western nation is at anywhere near the same risk of being beaten, tortured or murdered by his or her government as was a jew living in Nazi Germany, but I argue that yes, this modern individual has more of their daily life under passive surveillance and with the data being gathered up than the average German or even Jew had known about their daily life in the 1930's and early 40's. I don't see how you could argue against this idea given all the revelations of the last few years. That most of today's most advanced governments don't use their data collection capabilities to brutally repress their people as Nazi Germany was always willing to do is only a question of time, place and social politics, not of technical capability. If any currently more or less liberal government should change into a repressive dictatorship, the mechanisms for surveillance already in place would let them do a lot of repressing without even having to hire the neighbor or friend to be a secret agent.