The stasi didn't need that much information, or automation tech, to suppress dissent and ruin lives. I'm not complaining that those checks exist, but I am saying we definitely need more than that to protect us from a surveillance state.
Stasi had like 200 000 informants and we're drowning in the shear weight of their paper archives. There was a practical limit on how much they could surveil even with total commitment.
Which is relevant to my point that the police should have some work to gather data to keep down the scale.
Obviously, Stasi did persecute people in far worse way than Google et al. do right now.
> secret citizen spying program that's active in the Austin area and across the country ... Threat Liaison Officers (TLOs), who report suspicious activity or behavior ... each TLO must sign a nondisclosure agreement with ARIC, including those not working in law enforcement, essentially creating secret citizen officers. These informants, known as For Official Use Only TLOs, are able to access the fusion centers' national intelligence database (excluding personal identifying information). The FOUO TLOs include private security officers with local hotels, malls, large venues, and local semiconductor companies.
