>> These applications would be novel, at least on a widespread basis in Western liberal democracies. > How? We already know... I think you're making the mista

>> These applications would be novel, at least on a widespread basis in Western liberal democracies. > How? We already know... I think you're making the mistake of interpreting this as a binary thing, which obscures the difference between, for instance, tapping phone calls and installing bugs in every room of everyone's home (a la 1984's telescreens). Or in this case, Google scanning the emails you sent/stored on their servers vs. Microsoft storing and scanning every action you take on your PC. It would be novel because most people outside a corporate environment don't have a keylogger/screen-recorder running on their system.