One of the things that annoys me about these revelations is that, particularly in regards to the espionage aspect of things, essentially private businesses are

One of the things that annoys me about these revelations is that, particularly in regards to the espionage aspect of things, essentially private businesses are de facto in some way gaining from either increased inside knowledge or increased protection from the likes of the NSA or French equivalents etc... However, if private people, journalists or NGOs are targeted by foreign governments (or corporate intelligence) they are never told about it (probably leading to the death of sources etc) - and if they conducted hacking/espionage activities for the greater public good (for example to expose information about people wanted for genocide in Darfur, those who murder journalists in Russia, diamond corruption in the DRC) they would go to jail...What a sad world we live in that we would rather prioritise protecting clean engine patents and airplane deals instead of human life :(