Historically yes. But I suggest bookmarking this comment and coming back to it in a few years to see how prophetic or absurd it turns out.

Really? A cartoon about the Jeane Dixon fallacy is a response? I think you're going to find the next years very surprising indeed. Even now, using tor is de facto grounds for a wiretap[1]

And I apologize in advance if my evidence is actually on topic and doesn't have funny pictures.

[1]https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/05/section-702-mohamud-appeal...

back in the day, using a bbs was grounds for a wiretap. (The fact bbs were full of phreakers had absolutely nothing to do with it im sure....)

so they sit, they listen, then do what exactly?

Someone has to read through the material, decipher it, translate it, interpret it. and how exactly do you act on it?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3A_VT9YGA10

its easy to see both the upside and downside of this though.

its also only really a problem for americans. since the us government is paying to ensure other countries governments cant interfer with free communication.

its a matter of opinion wether they also managed to gain the ability to interfere with free communication themselves.

but since the "Next best alternative" is ssl/tls.

kinda a moot point.