> To what extent do we know whether the same thing is happening in other countries?
In many countries there is a single national telco which is by law or in practice a branch of the government.
> Do modern democracies tend to have laws that protect the public from this sort of indiscriminate surveillance?
Yes, to me this is a defining characteristic of a modern democracy. But they all have a process by which governmental authorities can bypass those protections in specific circumstances such as criminal investigations. This takes the form a court order or a subpoena.
This document appears to be a blanket grant, by a court, of a near-real-time data pipe with no specificity whatsoever.
In many countries there is a single national telco which is by law or in practice a branch of the government.
> Do modern democracies tend to have laws that protect the public from this sort of indiscriminate surveillance?
Yes, to me this is a defining characteristic of a modern democracy. But they all have a process by which governmental authorities can bypass those protections in specific circumstances such as criminal investigations. This takes the form a court order or a subpoena.
This document appears to be a blanket grant, by a court, of a near-real-time data pipe with no specificity whatsoever.