The State's duties to protect security and privacy - a shifting balance in the internet world?

Given the internet doubtless contains a wealthof material that meets intelligence requirements imposed by elected governments, what should the intelligence agencies do? Should they not seek to conduct operations to find information there on the basis that to do so cannot be proportionate to the privacy invasion that follows? Is the internet "different"? If so, how and why, and does that difference justify a self-denying ordinance in terms of what is sought and how it is sought? What should that be? Should intelligence agencies not seek to do anything other than pursue known targets? Do revised laws offer a solution? Does technology offer a solution?

All these are questions brought to the fore in recent disclosures by Edward Snowden: but they cannot be new questions for the intelligence agencies even if the disclosures have forced the questions on a wider audience. What has been the position? Why has it been thought to be legally and morally defensible in terms of a Government's duties to its citizens? And what does the future hold? The analysis will seek to answer these questions.