Then we should start an initiative to get everybody to request their file (it's the old "I would do it if you do it" problem). IMO, the only way to make sure t

Then we should start an initiative to get everybody to request their file (it's the old "I would do it if you do it" problem). IMO, the only way to make sure this kind of mass surveillance can be kept from happening again, would be to set up a new government structure that guarantees that budgets are kept so low that it's not possible to create it again and keep it running. Of course, that would imply that this apparatus has to be stopped, first. As for the kind of government structure required, I'm thinking: Cut the central government to a strict minimum and give the states back their power: Decentralize as much as you can. EDIT: As a bonus, this also leads us away from the single-point-of-corruption-and-failure which a powerful central government is (just like with the Internet).