Ah, yes, the "bad apple" theory of responsibility in a system built explicitly for abuse. It always works. Policing, surveillance, etc. is always for the common good and when it goes wrong, it's a "rogue officer", and not the system working as designed.

Crazy how it keeps happening. Surely we'll be rid of all the bad apples someday?

One bad apple spoils the bunch.

It's way worse than that. Appealing to emotion "the cops might stalk you" is textbook useful idiot behavior because it implicitly makes the argument that if there were proper controls and/or transparency and/or accountability (whatever that means) this stuff would be ok.

Everything the cops have gets abused to some extent. Of course surveillance dragnets are no exception. The real danger of these systems is what happens when it works as intended. These systems are bad on a fundamental level regardless of how well done the access controls are.

Surveillance is to protect about ... hm... terrorists. Not to spy on political opponents. /s

In the end, those who do not learn from history (hello EU) ....