Well of course it takes the invasion of privacy of upper echelon for it to be taken seriously. Had they been nobodies it would not be a scandal it would be normal. This is the problem with things like EARN IT too. Only once it's used against high powered innocents will it be a scandal, ergo privacy is not a right it is a product for the rich and powerful, not everyone.
ten+ years ago obama knew they were spying on merkel's phone and didn't say anything. The powerful people have already been spied on, and participated in the spying. The question is how many phones germany is tapping that merkel knew and didn't say anything about.
Nobodies don't have much to fear from this kind of surveillance. Nobodies have to fear being caught up in electronic dragnets and being processed by algorithms. This kind of surveillance will only be used against important people and people who become important by being a threat to important people.
The endgame of this stuff is that societies become completely controlled by nameless people; the least surveilled.
edit: just like the cops begging everyone to snitch and putting snitches everywhere are the least snitching people on the planet, intelligence organizations have mysterious locations, methods, budgets, customers, allegiances, owners, and employees. The least surveilled people on the planet will be the people who own the surveillance.
