There's a difference between filming the public in public-spaces (which is what the mass CCTV surveillance does) and reading everyone's private messages and every image uploaded from their devices. This is a step chance (if it goes ahead) and doesn't feel very different from what the Chinese State is doing to its citizens.

I agree. But I'm saying is that the current mass surveillance is already overreaching as-is.

You refer to CCTV for state mass surveillance, and link to Wikipedia pages but it doesn't appear that you even read them.

> The vast majority of CCTV cameras are not operated by government bodies, but by private individuals or companies, especially to monitor the interiors of shops and businesses. According to 2011 Freedom of Information Act requests, the total number of local government operated CCTV cameras was around 52,000 over the entirety of the UK.

The NYPD alone had 18k back in 2018.

https://securitytoday.com/articles/2018/10/29/new-surveillan...

That doesn't make the UK appear to be monitored heavier than other locations when a single city in the US approaches half their total number of cameras.

> There’s even a wikipedia page for it

There is a Wikipedia page on surveillance in Austria, and the US. Not sure what your point is, it's not like most of the west isn't under surveillance or that the UK is more monitored than other countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_the_Unite...

Or are you implying that Germany doesn't have any surveillance because it doesn't have a dedicated English Wikipedia page?

There is a lot of rhetoric aimed at the UK, and I'm not saying it's great, but there is a lot of convenient omission on other countries actions.