Google: Gmail users shouldn't expect email privacy

It's efficient to show personalized ads', nothing more. They (NSA, US administration etc...) certainly put forward national security to justify their practices, how successful it is is doubtful. Who would be silly enough to ignore thay any kind of wired communication can be tapped ? I just see that billions of dollars are wasted, some people just do things because they can be done.

Larger staff, bigger budget, that's a bureaucratic success.

Actually accomplishing anything has nothing to do with it.

What the NSA does is done by most major western countries and most larger countries in the world. The big difference is that in the US it can be reported on without penalty to the news organizations. We have nothing like the Official Secrets Act in the U.K. We also have reports from other coutries, like France, where such practices have made the media.

If you are online assume you have no privacy unless you take exceptional steps to insure your privacy, and even then assume that someone determined enough can take countermeasures against those steps.