It's been obvious that they must have something on every member of Congress, and certainly on the Supreme Court chief justice. What's sad is that there are so few patriots willing to stand up and say, "I'm being blackmailed, and that fact is more important than whatever sin they want to ruin me with." In that sense, Snowden was a patriot. But then, he was young, unmarried and with no children.
Many of the Founders were hounded to death, had their wealth confiscated, their estates overrun or their families scattered, as did of course the Apostles. It seemed more possible to hold out before there was GPS tracking wherever you flee and listening through the phone in your pocket and the computer on your lap.
Theoretically, these capabilities mean that few business plans, patented products, weapons systems or anything at all is safe from theft. It would require proprietary encryption with servers held offshore; but the real problem is the belief by "government" that "government" is entitled to hack any and all systems, no matter where. Once the "of the people, by the people, for the people idea of government by honor system is destroyed, you automatically have tyranny.
