This is a byproduct of trying to run governments more like businesses. A government's primary responsibility shouldn't be to make money, but the idea of lower taxes is attractive to so many in our current political environment, even if it means sacrificing basic rights to privacy like this.

If we think about citizens as shareholders of a government, we as citizens don't possess the same feedback loop that corporations do via the markets. Every stock purchase is a vote of confidence in a company to a degree, insofar as one buys a stock with the hope that it will increase in value. Unfortunately, the public doesn't have a fast feedback loop like this, and a lot of these decisions are made under the assumption that public either won't ever find out about it, or they'll be distracted by other issues.