Not by itself it doesn't. Google does mass surveillance on us all the time, and most people barely register that. What creates the chilling effect is mass surve

Not by itself it doesn't. Google does mass surveillance on us all the time, and most people barely register that. What creates the chilling effect is mass surveillance _combined with power_. That's what people are scared of - not just that some magic oracle somewhere knows what they're talking with their friends about, what their job is, what microscopic laws they're breaking and who they're cheating on their spouses with, but the fact that the entity doing the surveillance is also the entity that has a near-unlimited capability to do essentially whatever they want to them. That's where the self-censorship comes in.