This is a false dichotomy, you can be right or left leaning and also be libertarian or authoritarian[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_compass

1. The political compass is oversimplified and not taken seriously by political scientists 2. This has nothing to do with his argument. In the US, surveillance is largely the product of moral panics, primarily 1. The red scare 2. The race scare 3. The drug scare, which itself is really just a synthesis of 1 and 2; the drug war was essentially invented to attack black and Latino communities as well as anti government "subversives." Maybe that's not true in EVERY state that has used mass surveillance, but it is true in the specific case of the US.

Look, I'm as left-leaning as anyone, but check the link. The timeline is chock full of stuff on oppression of leftists.

You might try reading before criticizing.

And what of the countless civil liberties erosions of progressive hero FDR?