Let's start with blanket surveillance, can compromising privacy en masse save lives?

Balancing selection and privacy

How about programs that provide proactive intelligence based on so-called "Selectors?" Do they save enough lives to justify the invasiveness and expensiveness of mass archival of personal, potentially sensitive information?

The NSA currently claims that it's intelligence has prevented 55 terrorist events or cyberattacks this year. This is not likely to be true. As a matter of fact it's much more likely that this figure was made up on the spot. Statistically, the likelihood that 55 terrorist attacks on Americans were planned this year is almost inconcievable. I cannot find a calculator capable of turning that into a Z-score. We're like more than 30 standard deviations above the mean here. It's that unlikely. Bottom line, either the NSA has perjured itself or in the years since the US started the War on Terror the likelihood of a terrorist attack on Americans has exploded at a unprecedentedly catastrophic rate. Either way, that is a Really Big Problem.

But let's take them at their word for a moment and assume that they have actually prevented 55 terrorist attacks. The NSA spends about $10 billion per year, roughly 14% of the total national budget. $10 billion divided by 55 is an average cost of $181818181.81 per attack. Almost 200 million dollars per attack. It is not callous to call for this process to be more efficient.

Another potential analysis of the costs and benefits of this information is the problematic factors of putting such tempting information at the fingertips of fallible human agents. The widespread sharing of private love letters, especially those containing nude photos intended for personal messages between lovers, has occurred many many more than 55 times, although the actual figure is as yet indeterminate. Instances of stalking are also common among NSA employees, civilian contractors, and police all over the world, including in the US.

And let's not forget, if the NSA can get it, so can anyone else.