I am catching up with posting online my articles.
Is collecting data ( including private data ) about the citizens conducted by the government illegal ?
Yes and no...
It would be really difficult to answer this question because the government and the security agency can always defend themselves that they are doing it for security reasons. Even if it is illegal it is not easy to find out about it unless we have more people like Edward Snowden who has exposed NSA in America for spying on their citizens and then pretty much the whole world including Angela Merkel - the Chancellor of Germany.
Thirdly even though spying on the citizens of its own country is illegal, it is not illegal to do it by a foreign country and then it is also not illegal to get this data from this foreign country.
Thus you see... whether it is legal or illegal we cannot get away from it... unless we do complete system change over and replace all of those who are in power now with people who live and apply practically the principle of what is best for all.
But for the moment what is going to happen with all the personal data which has been collected by the government ?
One of the positive things out of it is that thanks to these spying it will be possible to prevent some terrorist attacks and other crimes. But at the same time we should be aware that those who are in power ( and many of them are greedy bastards and psychopaths ) and have access to these data can use it against innocent people - especially those who would be a threat to their privileged position of power by pushing the ideas of changing the system. And thus I am concerned that he benefits of preventing terrorist attacks and crimes is not equal to the damage caused by using the data to eliminate the activists. Because you know... for the government and those who are in power it is easy to present false evidence and then lock up somebody in prison.