We don't live in East Germany. We're supposed to be living in democracies where our governments act in our best interests, and our rights are not for sale.

They had this surveillance, on a far greater scale

This is a mentally-ill level of ignorance. The KGB or Gestapo couldn't even dream of the surveillance state Western capitalism has already built. They didn't have tracking devices and microphones in the pockets of most adults on Earth. They didn't capture millions of data points about all of their daily lives. They didn't have billion dollar economies structured around the capture and sale of that data. They didn't have the ability to flag dissidents or resistance autonomously, in real-time based on statistical modeling, or the capability to execute everyone they flag as opposition with cheap fully-autonomous drones. This is called turnkey-totalitarianism. All the tools have already been built. The only thing a tyrant needs to do is turn the key.

Either educate yourself about the world or keep your ignorance to yourself. Your opinion is currently worthless.