Democracy depends on informed consent of the governed.
> What happens when the people in power have all the power and no oversight?
The phrase "power corrupts - absolute power corrupts absolutely" was inspired by human history.
> By losing your privacy you don't get more security.
> Are you safer when you are transparent to them but they are opaque to you?
Eroding privacy protections aren't necessary. Many recent terrorism attacks could have been nipped in the bud, if more help was accepted from the public. For instance, the underwear bomber's parent warned the CIA [1] of his child. Russian intelligence warned us of the Tsarnaev's [2]. A flight school instructor warned the FBI of suspicious students who didn't seem interested in landing [3].
[1] https://hbr.org/2010/01/why-they-didnt-connect-the-dot
[2] http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2014/04/11/fbi-admit...
[3] http://www.newsweek.com/terrible-missed-chance-67401
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Keeping citizens informed & in the loop would help national security more than anything.