I simply cannot wrap my head around the fact that people who advocate for free speech and privacy do not show the same amount of vigour and enthusiasm for abolition of tax coercion, removal of trade barriers, rapid deregulation, total privatization, legalization of victimless crimes, abolition of fiat money and making property rights absolute. Surely, it is obvious that the state monopoly cannot co-exist with privacy and free speech? If the state considers the taking of a portion of your income by force 'legal', it could easily also justify the monitoring of all your financial and economic activity. The legal system wouldn't need to resort to deterrence (which requires mass surveillance) rather than punishment if it could allocate resources efficiently and provide services effectively, rather than relying on a capturable and corruptible monopoly provider like the state who does the opposite. It wouldn't need to monitor what you import and export if it doesn't think a certain category of goods are illegal to be traded. It wouldn't have to monitor your companies and their workings, operations and balance sheets if it didn't think you were engaging in production in a way that it thought was inappropriate. It wouldn't have access to your transactions if all of them aren't made through an institution which has bent the knee to the state. If anything the state declares as a crime is considered so, then it can just add an increasing amount of activities as being potentially leading to criminality, which it will monitor to ensure compliance. You wouldn't need to ask permission to speak your mind if nobody could enter or trespass your land without your consent, and if nobody can prevent you from using acquiring or using your property harmlessly in any way you deem fit. You could just build a hall, invite people and organise a conference. You could just set up an internet connection without a license. You can start a publication and build a reader base. You can build a movie theatre and broadcast whatever you want. You can protest all day everyday by buying a street or a plot. As long as the state exists and we depend on its monopoly for crucial services, privacy and free speech will always be under threat.