As experienced technologists we certainly know HOW it can be done but we probably struggled to believe they have the competence (governments generally suck at getting stuff done) or the generally willingness to store generally boring chit-chat on phone-calls/social media.
i.e. from an efficiency point of of view, I expected them to monitor "bad" people and didn't really expect them to monitor "boring/normal" people.
I think having someone with Snowdens credentials certainly helps. I think critical thinking people generally listen to people who we value as being closer to the issue. (or least rank them higher)
e.g.
- Is climate change real? What do the majority of climate scientists think?
- Is this startup trend/idea interesting? What does pg think?
- Is this thing about COVID-19 real? What does Dr. Champbell (youtube) think?