Hey @commonlaw yes that is a great point, the population control grid and the spy grid are two different aspects of the same tool of subjugation. So yes in relation to blackmailing agents and indeed politicians and heads of state your point is very valid. Equally, as time moves on I feel it will be increasingly utilised to control dissenting voices that have pertinent and popular points. They don't spy on us or listen to us all in real time, what they do is monitor (they probably have some form of A.I system doing this) emails and telephone calls for certain key words/phrases, these emails and calls are then stored .. perhaps they will never be listened to again, then again if you're a person of interest or at a later date you begin to become a problem they can start to collate this information and see if they can find something that could be used against you.

That was roughly how the old Echelon system works and now they have a much more nuanced and reactive grid .. the storage capabilities they have are pretty amazing, the last time I looked into it they had the ability to store about 400 years worth of the entire worlds real-time phone calls/emails etc etc . That may sound like overkill but when you factor in the fast approaching 4th industrial revolution and the internet of things it becomes more valid. So yes, although they're not spying on us all in real time if at a later date we become a person of interest (and that could simply be for expressing certain viewpoints) they can draw a hell of a lot of information within a very short time. Thank you for the excellent point and curation.