I am particularly annoyed at the "everyone is doing it" excuse. Everyone may want to be rolling with ten carrier battle groups in their navy, each equipped with an air wing capable of air-superiority, but only one country actually spends the kind of money to make that real.
Every government might have control freaks in it who WANT to implement pervasive surveillance. But most places don't have the budget for it.
That's right, but one of the corporations mentioned in the article is a UK grocery chain. The UK must be the most surveillance happy country in the world and we know that GCHQ cooperates closely with the NSA.
So I would love to hear an explanation from the people who put that clause in the contract. Maybe it's some kind of protest, but if it is meant seriously, it would be the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a long time.
Unless terrorism is actually just a cover for the NSA's true purpose of doing industrial espionage on behalf of US corporations. But if the meaning of the word "conspiracy theory" hadn't changed so dramatically recently, I could swear this is one ;-)
Every government might have control freaks in it who WANT to implement pervasive surveillance. But most places don't have the budget for it.