For bulk interception, it's true that a certain technical capacity is there that didn't use to be there. But targeted taps and intercepts, though expensive, used to be more straightforward in terms of process.
> Prior to the invention of the postal service, most communications were verbal and privacy was (relatively) easy to ensure.
? Messenger service seems about as old as the written word.
> But targeted taps and intercepts, though expensive, used to be more straightforward in terms of process.
Targeted taps and phone calls don't scale. Even police states that wanted to surveil their entire population could only directly monitor a small portion of the population at any time. These barriers no longer exist.
> Messenger service seems about as old as the written word.
Widespread literacy is a 19th/20th century invention. The telephone and telegraph became popular for non-essential communications only in the 20th century. Asynchronous "store and forward" electronic communications became a primary channel for communications (as in, nearly everyone in your family uses it in place of phone calls and paper letters, or even private conversations) only in the 2000s.
> Prior to the invention of the postal service, most communications were verbal and privacy was (relatively) easy to ensure.
? Messenger service seems about as old as the written word.