What is strange is that this happens in several countries at the same time.

I never found out why this is the case, because there can be many explanations. In general the global tendency is that the more and more digital data is there, the more and more states want to surveil people and invade onto their privacy. This is functional erosion of rights. I don't know of many states that counter that trend.

Sounds more like a lobby thing. Once a government finds a new "recipe" to be worked out with global vendors, meaning, a new way to allocate budget with a strong social justification (e.g. protect children, fight terrorism etc.), governments from other nations jump into the matter and literally copy/paste it locally. In short, whoever comes up with a creative idea to allocate public budget will serve as the basis for others to copy.

It's not strange. They can read technology news like anyone else, and vendors of security tools do sales campaigns like any other industry. Media says 'cybercriminals are getting away with it using this one weird trick,' people grumble about the police being useless, police say they can't stop the cybercriminals without spyware, media runs story about sympathetic pensioners losing everything to scammers because police are letting them run free, voters demand politicians do something etc etc. etc.

Also, y'all need to recognize that unbreakable personal security/ privacy/ paranoia is just not the default social position in most societies. There isn't a big conspiracy, it's a reflection of social mores we disagree with, either ideologically or through recognition that policing is often ineffective and corrupt.

Every Western government is receiving the same briefings from its intelligence and counterintelligence agencies: these powers are needed in case the third world war starts.

I mean, because the world is connected via a large global network with instant communication.

It's kind of like asking "Why did the world kind of destabilize politically during the 1910s". Massive technological change swept the world and fast travel changed the dynamics of the world.

Our world has changed from one of bulky analog data (paperwork, pictures, remote places) to one where any information can be digitized and sent anywhere in the past 2 decades. This data can be stored pretty much forever. This is as much of a change as what occurred in WWI and WWII. The political dynamics of the world are completely different in the data regime. He who controls the data controls the world.

This is a very difficult trend to counter, just because you decide not to control said data, doesn't mean that others aren't capturing that same data and using it against you, in which they'll take power.

There is a distinct possibility that rights and ever growing capabilities of technology are fundamentally incompatible. This is going to present a growing problem for human societies.

Why is that strange? Technology's proliferation decentralizes political power nexuses, making it a near-existential threat to tyrants^Wgovernments everywhere.

> What is strange is that this happens in several countries at the same time.

Probably a coincidence that it all happens just before the World Economic Forum summit in Davos. It could be they sent the new agenda a bit earlier to allow governments to prepare themselves.

I believe the main reason is the current "situation" with the US. European agencies and law enforcement have relied heavily on NSA signal intelligence via low-level intelligence exchange and it has become more and more clear that this is a dangerous dependence. In a sense, the turn towards codifying and legalizing surveillance had already started with the Snowden revelations because at that time many people realized that the usual practices were basically illegal and wanted more legal certainty. At the same time, companies like Apple have increased device security a lot over the past decade.

That's my take on it. I'd love to hear other explanations. It's indeed curious why so many EU countries are pushing for increased surveillance so heavily.

> . In general the global tendency is that the more and more digital data is there, the more and more states want to surveil people and invade onto their privacy.

You found out why.