It's also big in the Netherlands.. In the 90s they had the biggest number of phone taps in the world, and this is not per capita, but the absolute number! With a population a mere fraction of the US's.
However the Netherlands is a fairly honest country when it comes to statistics, so I wouldn't be surprised that the US still came out on top, but they just didn't report most of their taps for 'national security' reasons.
But something has really changed in the past 20-30 years. Before this there was no way to literally monitor everyone. It was too labour/storage intensive. You really had to be a 'person of interest' for some kind of (usually legitimate) reason.
Whereas now in this digital age (and with everyone carrying a portable listening device in their pocket) this is totally feasible and thanks to Snowden we know it's actually being done too.
> Before this there was no way to literally monitor everyone
The DDR did it
Another important factor is that until 20-30 years ago people communicated a lot less
They mostly talked face to face
The challenge today is not easier: to literally monitor everyone is not possible, the signal to noise ratio is too high
They could listen to everyone, it's doubtful it is possible to extract any meaningful information on random communications between random people that are not being monitored because they are already of interest
As someone else said metadata is more important because it allows to create connections between actors from thin air. When you have narrowed the scope, listening becomes a lot more effective.
However the Netherlands is a fairly honest country when it comes to statistics, so I wouldn't be surprised that the US still came out on top, but they just didn't report most of their taps for 'national security' reasons.
But something has really changed in the past 20-30 years. Before this there was no way to literally monitor everyone. It was too labour/storage intensive. You really had to be a 'person of interest' for some kind of (usually legitimate) reason.
Whereas now in this digital age (and with everyone carrying a portable listening device in their pocket) this is totally feasible and thanks to Snowden we know it's actually being done too.