> Has society really become this dangerous that we must deploy these things?

Rather than dangeours, society became dumber in a sense. overload of data resulted attemps to summarize or even make anything binary (I'm Pro X or Anti X).

(the text below is opinionated so please be forgiving :) )

I can name multiple countries (as I'm coming from one) that makes more "reforms" that has or will hurt human rights. (and we're still talking only on the "western world" which suppose to aim for freedom and human rights).

Coming from such a complex place in the world, I sadly say, that looking at stages in my life, I can easily remember the "good'ol'days" where there was one horrible thing, but I didn't know it can get worse.

I do hope society (and brits in the context of the above), will find the right balance to make a balance between feeling secured and invading privacy.