It's depressing, because I can imagine a world where the government would access people's data, but only under extreme circumstances like investigating terroris

It's depressing, because I can imagine a world where the government would access people's data, but only under extreme circumstances like investigating terrorist networks. Instead, they use it in outrageously corrupt ways, like collecting vast swathes of communications from everyone and storing them with poor limitations on access. As Chomsky (who I don't agree with on everything by any means) has written, when the government talks about doing things for "security," that usually means security of the government from its own people.