Let's not scrutinise those with the power and ability to carry out widespread surveillance on their own citizens.
"There is a reasonable suspicion that there is widespread surveillance," Max Schrems, the founder of the group, said.
Revelations by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden have shown that intelligence agencies are able to carry out widespread surveillance and hacking of suspects' computers.
For years before their famous exchange, Wyden had written numerous letters to Clapper seeking additional disclosure of widespread surveillance, particularly those programs with a domestic reach.
This post has been updatedCIVIL-LIBERTIES groups in America have long suspected that the government has been engaged in widespread surveillance of the phone calls that people make.
Mr. Greenwald's articles on the cache of documents, revealing widespread surveillance by the United States government, appeared in The Guardian newspaper last month.
Some of these organizations are in countries like Russia and China, which are suspected of engaging in widespread surveillance of their citizens.
Meanwhile, Hollywood agency WME was last month reported to be offering a film about Edward Snowden, who exposed the US National Security Agency's programme of widespread surveillance of its own citizens via the Guardian on 6 June, to studios.
The widespread surveillance of Spanish citizens by the US National Security Agency, which caused outrage when it was reported this week, was the product of a collaboration with Spain's intelligence services, according to one Spanish newspaper.
The report's authors even said that some countries are using the U.S. National Security Agency's widespread surveillance, which came to light following disclosures by the whistle-blower Edward Snowden, "as an excuse to augment their own monitoring capabilities".
Activists respond by claiming this is an excuse that gives police the licence to carry out widespread surveillance of whole organisations that are a legitimate part of the democratic process.
