Yes!
The powers given to government, by government, are very dangerous to democracy, the republic, our basic freedoms.
It started in a bad way with the creation of FISA courts. Literally secret courts where you cannot see the evidence against you, have no right to defend yourself etc. FLAT OUT UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
Then came the beginning of the WWW in the late 80s and early 90s with George H Bush as President. As former director of the CIA and now President, the government pushed to interpret anything that goes over the WWW as being public, no differently than if you were to scream at a ballgame you basically have no privacy with anything digital that is networked (period).
Then came 9-11 and the Patriot ACT. Now you finally had the impetus for these huge intel agencies to point their collection efforts inward. These Cold War relics were without a job after 1989 and saw cuts. Now they saw huge increases in budgets, personnel, expansion in powers and all of that was looking inward, not outward.
And here we are-
Taking it one step further the Obama administration weaponized the intel agencies to an unimaginable degree. It was bordering on police state stuff. All to monitor political adversaries and who knows what else.
We have still not learned the story behind the massive increase in FISA unmaskings. We need to get to the bottom of that abuse.