Things like this are paraded around as helpful for people in oppressive regimes when in reality they're more useful for building a bigger surveillance state in the West.
Devil's advocate here but global spying isn't the same as surveillance state. For in country surveillance there's enough CCTV to not even need satellites
Spying on foreign countries for the US gov is not the same as spying on citizens of foreign countries and providing that information to their government
I'm really a big fan of the technology, but even I have to admit that it can most likely be used for surveillance just as easily as it can be for providing legitimate cell service.
Cellular protocols have a very bad security track record, and this is built on the exact same standards.
Things like this are paraded around as helpful for people in oppressive regimes when in reality they're more useful for building a bigger surveillance state in the West.