> people in power are organizing, all together, a dystopian reality a la 1984

I'm not sure anyone believes that, really. And it isn't required in order to explain the explosion in surveillance.

In my view, it seems that increased surveillance throughout the world is a natural consequence of increased technology. If it's your job to stop crime, why wouldn't you digitize and automate?

The law is the last obstacle, and that is slowly being dismantled.