Not every country in the west is like the US.

Do we know how much tougher the warrant requirement is in other countries?

Australia is expanding anti-protest laws [1,2], the UK police is helping blacklist union organizers [3], and sharing information on disabled people and activist with private companies [4,5]. And as China's influence on Australia and New Zealand expands, there's a very real risk surveillance abuse will get even worse. And of course if you dare turn surveillance around on those with power, you can expect consequences [6]. There are precious few countries where surveillance is only used to catch murderers and kidnappers. And even in those, you're helping set up suppression infrastructure that a malicious government can use if they ever gain power in the future.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/20/queen...

[2] https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/nsw-antiprotest-laws-are-part...

[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43507728

[4] https://www.themeteor.org/2019/07/27/gmp-shares-disabled-pro...

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/apr/20/police-intelligen...

[6] https://www.businessinsider.com/tweets-that-got-people-arres... - 10th tweet

> There are precious few countries where surveillance is only used to catch murderers and kidnappers.

I think that number is down to ~0 after 9/11. The more relevant distiction nowadays is between countries that are performing mass surveillance and those that are not.

How could you ever know that a country is not performing mass surveillance?

It just takes one leak to show that one does, but confirming the opposite seems impossible to me. You'd have to know everything about every detail of the whole government.

The technically competent countries are (probably) doing it. That's the best I can say, honestly.