We're already seeing the effects of this surveillance program on internet behavior. Some people are switching to privacy conscious alternatives to services, but these changes in service allegiance are mostly unimportant and illusory. If blanket surveillance is allowed to continue it will effect the types of information we feel free to share and even who we choose to interact with; how we use the internet and how we perceive our personal freedoms. The internet will become a very boring and much less useful place unless something is done to address the total scope of the issue.

As I see it the scope of this thing is huge. It's an information arms race. The French say they have similar capabilities (this is probably a bluff but won't be for long). The Chinese probably already have the capabilities and their society is aligned with a social morality to support it. Governments have complained that the information being gathered includes trade secrets of use to commercial interests. Finally, from the perspective of individuals, it looks like something dreamt up by a paranoid totalitarian government to enforce population control. This is a proper shit-storm.

I'm not sure where this is going but I'm hoping for some kind of global blanket surveillance ban treaty. Something that applies to both governments and corporations and regulates how long data can be stored and used. I'm hoping for something totally unrealistic that completely averts the nightmare scenario.