Technology should be used to create social mobility – not to spy on citizens

NSA and GCHQ mass surveillance is more about disrupting political opposition than catching terrorists

Why spy? That's the several-million pound question, in the wake of the Snowden revelations. Why would the US continue to wiretap its entire population, given that the only "terrorism" they caught with it was a single attempt to send a small amount of money to Al Shabab?

One obvious answer is: because they can. Spying is cheap, and cheaper every day. Many people have compared NSA/GCHQ mass spying to the surveillance programme of East Germany's notorious Stasi, but the differences between the NSA and the Stasi are more interesting than the similarities.