Look at this article, then read the rest.
I think it is important to note that the various dystopian scenarios–1984, We, Brave New World–should not be seen as having suddenly come into being, but as having been accepted gradually, with the acceptance of each step being so much more emotionally easy than active resistance, that soon the framework is in place. This is the essence of Fabian gradualism: the frog in the boiling pot. Large s…egments of 1984 are already upon us. We look at the internet as freeing us, and it does do that, but it also eradicates the possibility of freedom from spying. The government can already turn on your cell phone invisibly and use it as a bug. If your computer is on, and on the internet, they can see it, and everything on your computer. If you have a cell phone, they know where you are.
From this basis of technology, a more or less perfect surveillance state can and has been built, largely on the basis of needing to combat “terrorists” who seem nowhere to be found. I thought those who argued in 2001 that the attacks would be used to build a surveillance state were being paranoid, but I no longer believe that. Power that can be abused, WILL be abused. This power has been accrued, so absent aggressive and effective Congressional utilization of our Bill of Rights to combat it, the next step is a certainty. When, I can’t say, but it is not a question of if.