Spoken like a true technician. The whole purpose of a Constitutional republic *IS* to stop abuses of power and privacy. Just because a government technically CAN and WANTS TO, doesn’t mean it should be permitted to. Cops may “want” the power to summarily shoot people who they strongly suspect of being gang leaders, and could technically do so. Fortunately, we have a rule of law, and this isn’t permitted.

The purpose of public and civilian courts is to judge the Constitutionality of laws and government actions. Thankfully, Snowden has thrown this out into the open, so it may be judged, both by the public and in the courts.

Hope that there will be many more like him, and that we’ll see a rerun of 1968 and 1973, with a collapse of faith in government, people clamoring for strict control of the three-letter agencies, spitting in the faces of people who are cogs in the machine, etc.

A company tracking its vehicles or its employees’ cell phones DURING WORKING HOURS is a whole different ball game.