Don’t take this the wrong way, but you are probably not important enough to be their target. Unless they could exploit you in order to exploit someone more powerful they care about, like a corporate or political leader. This is more to protect our leaders, which in turn keeps you more protected.
You are completely missing the point of government surveillance.
Yes, indeed, as an individual nobody cares about you. However you are a part of general census and by spying on you and everyone around you they can predict what you are thinking, what you are craving, what political stance you hold, what are the risks of you being involved in some future problems for them etc. You can go wider and wider to a city, to a state and finally to a country. Then, for example China can really see what american citizens are thinking in general and this is valuable information.
Also, second reason why you are completely missing the point. Let's say you are one of those "I don't care if they spy on me, let them record me on my toilet." - Now your kids are involved in some political activity and you did not pay your taxes for one month 7 years ago. Government wants to suppress your kids political activity and just tell them either they stop or their father (you) go to jail. At least this is how it works in totalitarian countries.
Recording the taxes is fine. Not having paid your taxes for month doesn’t mean you go to jail. But that information might now suddenly be used to coerce your children. That is not okay.
> you are probably not important enough to be their target.
So why are they hoovering it all up? Every last piece of digital dust they can get.
You're not important until you stumble across evidence of a Five Eye nation committing war crimes or try to whistleblow on the IC breaking laws or run for political office trying to limit military budgets or just about anything that goes against the narrative of faceless people in faceless buildings who can and do maintain their power using the tools they have available. When was the last time the Intelligence Community said the world was getting safer and they needed less funding?
Has a single person been prosecuted for the blatant crimes revealed by Edward Snowden? How about MKUltra, did even one person go to trial for the deranged human experiments conducted on American citizens by the American Government?
Everyday people need protection from these lawless organisations more than ever to be able to shine a light on injustices without fear. Society won't advance without it, the Western World world will start spinning it's wheels like authoritarian China and friends where everyone keeps their heads down in passive obedience and liberties go backwards.
I'm not so sure they did. The idea is that if you are of interest to a powerful adversary, then a second powerful entity that has previously collected pertinent coercive knowledge about you could try to strike a deal using that information they collected, potentially decades ago. Or they could threaten to release the info unless you compromise your positions.
Besides, surely in the future there could be a more automated intelligence brokerage between nations - who knows how long the current political climate lasts before it gets replaced with something more like HFT intelligence trading between the MSS and NSA.
> This is more to protect our leaders, which in turn keeps you more protected.
Nonsense. The leaders on the US are not on my side, why should I be on theirs?
Killing people in foreign wars is done in the name of protecting me, but I didn't ask for that, and I don't believe it protects me. In fact, it's painfully obvious to me that if you kill people in foreign countries, it incentivizes their families to come here and kill Americans. US leaders aren't protecting us.
The fact is, I'm more likely to be shot by an American cop than I am to be affected by China. If I'm going to prioritize personal security, it's going to be against the threats most likely to cause me harm.
