It shouldn't come as any surprise that some of the other advanced countries with the capability to run large scale data mining programs, are doing just that (under a cloak of secrecy from their citizens of course).
France, Too, Is Sweeping Up Data, Newspaper Reveals
By STEVEN ERLANGER
PARIS — Days after President François Hollande sternly told the United States to stop spying on its allies, the newspaper Le Monde disclosed on Thursday that France has its own large program of data collection, which sweeps up nearly all the data transmissions, including telephone calls, e-mails and social media activity, that come in and out of France.
So the official French anger over the NSA's data mining was just a facade of poutrqage while they were doing the exact same thing.
Le Monde reported that the General Directorate for External Security does the same kind of data collection as the American National Security Agency and the British GCHQ, but does so without clear legal authority.
The system is run with “complete discretion, at the margins of legality and outside all serious control,” the newspaper said, describing it as “a-legal.”
Now that these far reaching data collection programs are coming to light it will be interesting to see how the citizens of each of our respective democracies will try to restore a better balance between privacy and security, and which one will be most effective in crafting that balance.