Any rational agent grabs as much #power as it's officially conferred on it, and _then more_. An extra inch, or an extra mile: as much as it can get away with.

Sovereign states display that behaviour to the extreme: they are massive in size, extremely hard to scrutinise, and have the best mechanisms for #secrecy built in by design (eg, for the sake of national security).

Think what you want about the likes of #Snowden, #Assange and #Manning — they have repeatedly demonstrated that #governments routinely abuse their powers.

To argue that #ChatControl isn't dangerous because it's just the provision for automatic scanning under special circumstances, for specific cases — and not an absolute mandate for massive scanning of everyone, all the time — is either naive or disingenuous.

The #law must follow the [principle of least privilege](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_privilege).