The problem isn’t about KGB style spying with half a million employees. The problem is technology enabling automated KGB style spying that feeds automated information operations on an international level.
If everything you say in your house is digitally stored in perpetuity, the things you say today can be used to manipulate you tomorrow by either a state or a corporation.
Historically, plenty have, and sometimes those governments arise unexpectedly and rapidly.
We have no idea what a fascist government with the ability to closely monitor every person in real-time looks like yet. Maybe it's the answer to the Fermi paradox.
