The thing is, I think you have to be pretty naive not to think that any intelligence agency wouldn’t jump at the chance to read the world’s emails and listen in on its phone calls. If you know anything about the history of the CIA (here I direct you to Tim Weiner’s excellent book) this development was entirely predictable; after all, they’ve done far worse on far flimsier pretexts. They buy the biggest and best computers going and 90% of their staff are analysts, not James Bond. What did you think they were doing? For me though, the tiny possibility that my email is being read by someone at Langley is just one of those slightly unpleasant ponderables of modern life. It worries me far less than “What’s in my hotdog?” and “Who really did the amazing stitching on this £20 shirt?”