My opinions are mixed. In general the expansion of technology and the options it opens is going to lead to the expansion of the government's power in order to police it and keep people safe.
The way I see things is pretty straightforward. We let the genie out of the bottle. Right now criminals, terrorists, and spies are going to use these technologies without bothering to ask for permission or with any concern for civil liberties. As a result our own protectors (love them or hate them) have to do the same basic thing. It's easy to sit here and complain about government intrusion, but understand that as soon as something major happens, like a 9/11 attack, people are going to be demanding of the government an explanation for why it didn't do anything. It's kind of odd given the western world's relation with spies and covert intelligence, we take comfort in the idea of someone like "James Bond" watching over us, but at the same time revile any actual evidence that such is the case. Speaking for myself, we in the USA tried to go it without resorting to these kinds of things, falling well behind the US, Canada, and other allies in the process, indeed that was why when 9/11 happened the US didn't have any idea who attacked us, and it's also why we had to pretty much rebuild our intelligence services from the ground up (which was controversial at the time due to fear we'd create an "intelligence Czar" if we effectively put all intelligence under one umbrella). Things like the Edward Snowden leak are part of the growing pains of trying to get back into a much neglected game. What's more anyone who thinks that a group like the KGB (in the country Snowden is hiding) doesn't have draconian domestic security and/or wouldn't exploit the things Snowden is talking about to come after the US, is fooling themselves. I'm sorry but I just can't see someone like Putin sitting there saying "using the Kinect to spy is just too evil for the KGB" unless he was joking.
What's more it need to be understood that the use of these kinds of civilian channels and such is going to be combined with other things like codes and ciphers as part of an art generally known as "Fieldcraft". A deep cover agent, terrorist, etc... isn't going to have some kind of satellite radio implanted in his ear or whatever because such a signal could be picked up. Rather he's going to communicate and send information based on what's available and doesn't get much in the way of suspicion. Not to mention the simple fact that some groups, like most terrorist organizations, have to scrounge whatever they can get, because they don't have the funding for things like super-secret comm channels and the like even if they wanted to. Someone communicating through an MMO or whatever might very well use a code involving game lingo/lore to make it harder to detect. With something like the Kinect they might say put one in front
of a chair and have some kind of simple pass/fail system based on what game is on the chair at a given time so someone might hack in and just check one specific camera. Say if the game on the chair is "Just Cause" it means blow something up, if it's "Final Fantasy" it means wait... or whatever pre-assigned signals they set up.
Now of course when it comes to mass communications channels and concealed conversations/symbols/etc... the odds of catching anyone in particular without any other clues is difficult, but it's better to try rather than just allow free reign. Recording tons of data into databanks furthermore allows one to go back through it looking for information as
you gather more data. If you say suspect some dude of being a terrorist, you might be able to get some inkling as to his system if you watch him, and then compare events to what games he leaves on his chair when he's done playing (along with the fact, that he always leaves one there with it's title visible to the Kinetic Camera) or something like that.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying I like the idea of this kind of government surveillance, but at the end of the day we need to allow our own protectors access to all the tools their enemies have. If we're all dead, a philosophical point doesn't matter. What's more there IS a lot of middle ground between some kind of totalitarian regime and what we're talking about, we haven't gotten there yet. Most of what we're talking about is less machevellian spy plots and what amounts to common sense security being applied to new technologies. The more technology that develops and the more it comes into one's home, the more regulation is going to come with it as a matter of course. Even when looking at things like "1984" you need to consider the big picture, saying they have some things similar to what was in that book does not mean it's the same exact thing because the overall situation, society, and context, is far different. While sort of ironic the semi-utopian (to many people's way of thinking) society in "Star Trek" isn't all that different from "1984" depending on one's perspective... the devil is in the details and in the intent. Not to mention that every society is going to have it's people that get screwed over and wind up hating their government. Look at the planet "Tasha Yar" was from for example, nor the environment some of the mercenaries (like the crew Picard infiltrated) were from, or the sentiments of the colonists who were literally sold to the Cardassians by the government. Even in fantasy a generally "good" system has it's dark side, bad points, and does some truely screwed up things.
Then again a big part of it is that I really just can't see what The Government would care about what I do. I'm not perfect or an ideal citizen or anything, but I just can't see them ever wanting to have an intelligence analyst try and track me or anyone else, and even if they did what are they going to discover... porn maybe? (in my case they wouldn't even find much of that). That might be a bit embarrassing if your easily embarrassed, but really... nobody cares. People overestimate their own importance if they think the government really gives enough of a crap to actually have someone spy on them. The simple size of the undertaking and realities involved in it is also part of why I'm relatively trusting, to even begin to sort through this garbage means they are going to have to be after something fairly important. Nobody is going to willingly subject themselves to hours upon hours of watching people play video games (without even being able to see the game) just for lulz for example.
