That's hardly effective; most covertly collected evidence is already inadmissible in courts in most free countries and yet here we are. Governments spying isn'

That's hardly effective; most covertly collected evidence is already inadmissible in courts in most free countries and yet here we are. Governments spying isn't ubiquitous because it's an effective means to uphold the law: it's because like any government budget: you use it or you lose it. And after the "good old days" of the Cold War nobody is ready to relinquish that power. So instead here we are, decades after we stepped back from the nuclear brink, as terrified as ever with a media presenting us with a myriad of dubious villains to justify expansion and over reach. The true extent of the damage caused by rampant espionage will probably never be understood because secrets breed secrets, breed corruption -- and when a nation's intelligence services can legally spy on the full spectrum of industry: the potential for corruption is massive