As David Miranda's recent detention illustrates, where states once introduced exceptional legislative measures in times of crisis, the law has now been rendered an instrument for a permanent state of war.
Behind Google and Verizon lies a much more complex landscape of American companies ready to do global business selling surveillance technologies - and stay apathetic to the consequences.
We should not underestate the seriousness of the government's attacks on those seeking to expose its surveillance secrets. At stake is not only what the state is entitled to do to the public, but what journalists are entitled to do to expose it and perform the vital role of public watchdog.
At least at first, freedom dies without human beings being physically hurt. The author is convinced that the freedom risk is the most fragile among the global risks we have experienced so far. He calls for a digital humanism.
What words would he have used to denounce the way the government surveillance he was under is now commonplace and pervasive, potentially targeting anyone in the United States?
The debate roars on as Theresa May insists the detaining of our citizens is for our own protection, but how far and how deep can this controversy go?
