In a profile on Palantir (which sells tools that help with this sort of thing), one employee was quoted as saying "this really is about saving the Shire". Had to laugh.
I remember that (I think it was in Wired), and it struck me as a basic naivety on their part as when they were building it they were thinking about catching bad guys without realising the line between who's a good guy and who's a bad guy is determined way above your head.
In the spirit of the 'Shire' quote they should have also realised 'with great power comes great responsibility'. No one has demonstrated that they are responsible enough to have that level of power over millions of people.
