New Zealand Passes Law Allowing Domestic Spying

> This is not, and never will be, about wholesale spying on New Zealanders,

Indeed, just like how Americans couldn't be "targeted" by XKeyscore, all of the foreigners that they communicate with can be targeted. It's like encircling the outer bounds of a house and then claiming you're protecting it from outsiders by tracking everybody's movements in and out of it, but it's well within your ability to exert your powers inside the house.

Domestic spying isn't a priority of the current administration, but the next one may not be so benevolent. Look at the IRS and DEA in the US, for example.

> The push to change the law came after it emerged last year that the GCSB illegally spied on Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom before armed police raided his Auckland mansion as part of a US-led probe into online piracy.

> At the time Key publicly apologized to Dotcom, who is a New Zealand resident and should have been off-limits to the GCSB under legislation preventing it from snooping on locals.

> However, an official report found that Dotcom's case was only one of dozens in which the GCSB had overstepped its bounds.

So, the New Zealand government has responded to the abuses of its spy agency by ... giving the agency more spying powers.

The mind utterly boggles.