As I mentioned in a recent comment:
The balance between privacy and the authority is just that. We outsourced the rule of law to the state in order to have a fair and just society. Ipso facto the government should be fair and just to have the right to invade some amount of privacy in order to keep a society free, fair and just.
That’s why the judicial branch exist: to see if what the government (or anyone) did was playing by the rules. Which brings us back to politics being a danger to a society if people vote in unjust or unfair people.