(1) The 50s aren’t exactly a shining beacon of civil liberty. You mean the time when you couldn’t get a decent seat on a train if you were Black, got blacklisted as a “Communist” if your name was Jewish and you hung with the wrong crowd, or when the police let go the dogs on peaceful demonstrators? Not to mention J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI tactics.
(2) The government should be held to a higher standard. I can rent an apartment across from Mr. Lars Thorwald of 125 West 9th St, and have the opportunity to peek into his window as a private citizen. Maybe even suspect him of murder. For the FBI to do that should require a warrant to surveil a specific person.
Furthermore, release of personal data should be subject to contractual obligations. If my contract with Verizon states that my phone records are confidential and will not be released to a third party, unless they’re served with a lawful warrant, this should be the case. The warrant should only be for a specific person or set of phone numbers, not for the ENTIRE FUCKIN COUNTRY.
