I think that as with the latest NSA stuff, it's the ubiquitous and wholesale nature of it that really changes the game. Before, everyone knew that spying was h

I think that as with the latest NSA stuff, it's the ubiquitous and wholesale nature of it that really changes the game. Before, everyone knew that spying was happening here and there, but as an ordinary, politically uninteresting person, you could (perhaps naively) pretty much assume it wouldn't affect you. But we are rapidly reaching a stage where intense surveillance is close to guaranteed on everyone, and the potential for abuse is much greater. "Ordinary" people going to Russia to watch to the Olympics won't just have to worry about being targeted for political reasons, they'll have to worry about their business communications, financial information, having details of their sexual life leaked and then being confronted by a brutal mob, reaching a position of power and being blackmailed in the future, etc. In the past, Western countries could have protested in some way about behavior such as this and perhaps used their leverage to make changes, but now it appears that this tyrannical approach to human rights is becoming standardized.