Originally Posted by
JohnBKistler
Perhaps. But then doesn't this in a way make it worse? Often times, the "un-common" individuals are representatives (elected or not) of the voices and desires of many thousands, if not millions.
Take Martin Luther King, JR, for example. The FBI illegally recorded him having an affair with another woman and then used that information to try and get him to stop his civil rights activities. So not only were his rights (protecting him against warrant-less wiretaps) abused, but the information they gained was used to suppress the rights of millions to petition their government.
One last point, once the government has this information, there is no getting rid of it. You may think you are too small a fish to be spied upon, but their are many, many instances were government employees abused legally obtained information (tax returns, driver's license information, etc.) to just snoop around on their fellow citizens. Sure there are laws already against this sort of activity, but adding x10s, or 1000xs more info - obtained illegally - to the mix, just increases the opportunity that much more. And if you don't think an NSA analyst is looking at the text messages and Internet records of the pretty brunette that lives across the street, I have some land in Florida to sell you.